


Young Hunks, Taking Shots

by iBear



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Analgesia, Bathing/Washing, Cohabitation, Gay Chicken, Injury Recovery, Last Game Compliant, Long-Distance Friendship, M/M, Masturbation, Oblivious, Sex Toys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-05 21:01:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17332280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iBear/pseuds/iBear
Summary: Taiga accepted this as a logical continuation of their rivalry.But it felt a lot like a prolonged game of gay chicken.





	Young Hunks, Taking Shots

**Author's Note:**

> Credits to salvamisandwich for betaing this despite limited knowledge of the fandom. I actually haven't finished watching the series myself. Most importantly, I know _nothing_ about the NBA. This is also why all the 'teammates' are nothing but nameless, faceless NPCs. Apologies for any mistakes.
> 
> Title: I owe fics with Ke$ha lyrics as song titles. Sorry not sorry.

Taiga didn’t care what Aomine said--it had _not_ been a dare.

\--

Overall, Taiga thought he had left Japan on relatively good terms with the Generation of Miracles. Even Aomine, who would forever and always be a pain in the ass, had smiled (smirked) and wished him the best (reminded him that he would never beat him one-on-one) during their last meeting. It was why he was surprised to hear from Kuroko that Aomine was on a rampage through the Japanese high school basketball league, fueled entirely by anger.

“Anger? At who?” he asked, leaning back in his desk chair. It had taken a bit of adjustment moving back in with his dad. He hadn’t realized how used to living on his own he was until his dad walked in on him cleaning the stove and reminded him that he had a cleaning service for that. Still, with his training schedule and his dad’s work hours, it wasn’t like they saw each other all that frequently. That and their mutual guilt at leaving the other alone for a few years seemed to ease the transition.

His dad had at least met Kuroko over video chat, embarrassingly while Taiga had been taking a nap and Kuroko had been doing his homework. Kuroko’s deadpan explanation that they usually kept each other on video chat even when they were just doing their own thing and not talking had resulted in a very awkward conversation later, where Taiga had to convince his dad that he and Kuroko were _not_ dating.

“But I am gay,” he had said all in a rush. His dad had frowned and the bottom had dropped out of Taiga’s stomach--

“Really? Then why aren’t you dating? He’s pretty cute,” his dad had objected. Taiga hadn’t had an answer for him that wasn’t a horrified expression.

He couldn’t imagine what his dad would think about the rest of the Generation of Miracles. Hopefully, he’d never find out. “What stupid reason does he have to be angry?” he asked again.

“I don’t think he realized that you going back to America meant you _staying_ in America,” Kuroko admitted after a thoughtful pause. Taiga froze.

“He’s angry at _me?_ ” he squawked. He was an ocean away, and Aomine still found a reason to be pissed at him? What the fuck.

“I think he’s just angry that you aren’t here,” Kuroko explained patiently. “You know Aomine-kun hasn’t emotionally matured yet. He still hasn’t figured out how to express that he misses someone.”

Taiga had started snickering at the emotional maturity part, only to choke at the idea that Aomine somehow _missed_ him. That somehow sounded even more implausible than the guy just being angry with him. Taiga was used to an Aomine that was angry with him. One that had positive feelings about him…

“Maybe you should email him some time. Sacrifice yourself to save the budding basketball players of Japan,” Kuroko said, and Taiga had no idea how he managed to say that with a straight face. Still, he got the hint.

“Send me his email address,” he agreed. Not that he had any idea what to email Aomine about, and Kuroko’s suggestion of _pretend like you’re talking to a more egotistical version of yourself_ was hardly helpful.

He ultimately chose to send him a clip that Alex had taken at one of training sessions of him being cornered by a defender. Thinking only of wanting to score, he had somehow remembered how he had gotten tripped up by Aomine that first game they played together, and so he went for a formless shot that he’d seen Aomine done again and again. He had been as surprised as everyone else when the shot went in. It was part mocking, part flattery, and Taiga figured if it made Aomine mad enough to tell him to piss off, he could at least tell Kuroko that he’d tried.

Two days later, he got a video of Aomine’s best replica of a meteor jam in one of the Inter-High games.

“You made it worse,” Kuroko scolded him later. Taiga couldn’t quite hide his grin.

\--

They didn’t always exchange videos of themselves. Sometimes, he sent Aomine NBA highlights, sports news, and once, a link to “Learning English as a Foreign Language for Dummies” when Aomine complained that he couldn’t read Taiga’s stupid English articles. What he didn’t realize was that he was also sending one liners about his life in America, the pros and cons of being back, how he missed Maji Burger and Kuroko and sometimes even Nigou a little bit.

Aomine sent him his own favorite highlights, Japanese sports news, and pictures of his gravure magazines that always had Taiga rolling his eyes. In between he would whine about what Satsuki was nagging him about now, talk about how he was planning on just trying to get signed with a team in the B.League and not go to college, and once, notably, asked, “Don’t you miss me?”

“The only one who would miss you is you,” Taiga wrote back. He only wished he could see Aomine’s face when he read it.

That somehow led to a selfie campaign, and Taiga didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the daily barrage of pictures of Aomine’s stupid face and Aomine’s asshole grin and Aomine’s admittedly _really great_ body. “For your scrapbook,” Aomine wrote.

Taiga wrote back in all caps that, “I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT HAVE A SCRAPBOOK and even if I did why would you be in it?!?” He swore never to admit, even on pain of death, that he saved every single photo Aomine sent. Some of them had Kuroko in them, and Taiga figured that was a good enough reason.

“He’s making us take pictures of him. All the time,” Kuroko said, accusingly.

“Even the shirtless ones?” he asked before thinking it through.

Kuroko’s expression somehow flattened out even more. “He sends you shirtless pictures of himself?”

Not knowing how to respond to that, Taiga hung up.

Karma came back around for him anyway when his dad shouted at him to please set the table, and Taiga had been distracted enough to get up from the living room coffee table with his laptop screen still on and one of Aomine’s emails open. He came back to see his dad staring contemplatively at a picture of Aomine in the middle of a game, with his jersey pulled up to wipe the sweat from his face, revealing goddamn impressive abs that took up at least half of the picture.

“Is _he_ your boyfriend?” his dad asked.

This time when Taiga denied it, his dad looked a lot less convinced.

\--

“He has a smartphone now,” Kuroko said as soon as the call connected, and it sounded like a warning.

“What does that have to do with me? His old phone already had a camera.” Taiga wasn’t sure why they were wasting time talking about Aomine when he hadn’t talked to Kuroko in weeks. College meant they were both busy all the time, and with the added time zone difference, it cut down on how often they could actually speak to each other.

Luckily Kuroko also had a smartphone, so they had moved to mostly texting. This was something that could have been said over text.

“Kise-kun told him about WhatsApp.” Taiga froze. Okay, that was slightly alarming, but he was still safe. Aomine didn’t-- “Momoi-san gave him your number. As revenge for all the photos he’s made her take for you.”

“She doesn’t know my number!” Taiga shouted.

“I gave her your number. Also as revenge for all the photos he’s made me take for you.” There was a glint in Kuroko’s eye that a younger, more innocent Taiga had once thought was mischief. He knew now that it was actually _sadism_.

“Whatever, he’s already emailing me everyday,” Taiga said, and even he was a bit impressed with Aomine’s determination. The guy had done what he said, forgone college and signed with a team in the B.League. From the news Taiga followed and the clips that Aomine sent him, he seemed to be doing well. Too well to have time to be sending Taiga emails everyday. “He’s not going to text me too.”

Kuroko’s silence explained what he thought about that. Taiga cleared his throat and changed the subject to how Kuroko’s classes were going. In exchange, he told Kuroko about UCLA, which had accepted him on a basketball scholarship, and his new dorm room, which didn’t have a kitchen but did have a twin bed that was way too small for him, and his new meal plan, which basically guaranteed him endless food.

By the end of the conversation, Taiga was laughing and had completely forgotten about Kuroko’s warning. He went to class and practice and scrims blissfully, hopefully ignorant.

Until the day a picture of Aomine popped up on his phone in class, and Taiga, lazily checking it while the professor was explaining something, startled so badly he slammed his phone face down on his desk. The entire lecture hall turned to look at him. “Uh, sorry,” was all he managed to choke out.

He checked the messages later and, sure enough, Aomine had sent him his daily barrage of pictures, along with a million emoticons and demands to talk to him.

 _It is 3 in the fucking morning over there, why are you awake?_ Taiga texted furiously.

_Took nap earlier. Bored and awake now._

_I have classes, unlike some idiots._

_You’re stuck listening to some old guy talk about stuff you’ve never cared about while I get to play basketball all day, and I’m the idiot?_

He had a point.

 _STOP SENDING ME PHOTOS!!_ Taiga responded after taking a moment to think. _At least not in the middle of the day! What if someone else saw?_

It was the wrong thing to say. Aomine did stop with the barrage, instead choosing to send him one photo at different, unpredictable hours of the day. Taiga had no idea what he was doing or why the photos were getting more and more focused on Aomine, sweaty, and usually lacking some crucial article of clothing, but nothing he said seemed to deter the asshole.

And okay, Taiga had to admit that now that Aomine was completely devoting his time to basketball, his body was somehow _even better_ than before. Not that Taiga spent much time fantasizing about it. At least. Not on purpose.

In response, Taiga had taken to hiding his phone during practice, refusing to look at it in class or anywhere public. He was careful about it, methodical.

But then his dad had told him to keep his phone in easy reach, with the ringtone on, because he was picking him up from practice for dinner. Taiga, excited to see his dad again, did so without a second thought. He left his phone on the bench and even told his teammates to let him know if it started ringing, and then went to practice layups.

He eventually went back to check his phone, concerned enough that his father hadn’t called yet that he missed the flustered faces of his teammates who had been sitting there the whole time. Poking at his phone, he watched as the screen lit up only to show a picture of Aomine. Wet. In a speedo.

For a magazine cover? _I thought you played basketball,_ he typed back to Aomine.

 _I guess they preferred me in less clothes,_ was the almost instant reply. Taiga could feel his cheeks heating up at Aomine’s shameless, if accurate, view of himself. He looked up, sighing with exasperation, only to see several of his teammates staring at him.

“Oh.” Oh no. “Did you--yes, of course you did. It isn’t what it looks like?” He winced at his own explanation. How did Aomine always get him into trouble?

“Someone sent you a magazine cover of a guy in a speedo,” summarized one of them.

“The guy that was on the cover sent it to me,” Taiga agreed, which resulted in more thoughtful staring.

“You’re dating a model?” another teammate finally asked. “Sweet.” He held out a fist for Taiga to bump and instinctively, he did.

Then he spluttered, “No, wait! He’s a basketball player!” There was a pause before he also remembered to add, “And we _aren’t_ dating.”

“Of course not,” another guy said, and Taiga let out a breath of relief. “Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone.” He groaned but had no chance to explain further as the phone in his hand began to ring.

“You know, you could have just disabled banner notifications,” Kuroko told him a week after the incident, when Taiga finally confessed to what had happened.

“... I hate you,” Taiga said. “You owe me a favor.”

\--

So Kuroko taught Aomine how to use Skype. “I’m glad you’re going to talk to him,” Kuroko had said before venturing over to Aomine’s.

“What are you talking about? I talk to him all the time,” Taiga had tried to laugh off.

“Arguing about the best burger in Japan is not talking to him,” Kuroko had replied, and okay, Taiga agreed with that. It was part of the reason why he was so nervous to call him, to see him face to face again. They messaged each other every day, but aside from a few lines they snuck in between pictures and articles, he didn’t feel like they really knew each other.

But Aomine deserved to know, especially if he was going to keep sending these pictures.

The notification for a call came up, and Taiga almost fell out of his chair in his rush to accept. Kuroko had texted him earlier in the day that setting Aomine’s Skype up was going to take longer than expected, although Taiga had no idea what that meant. It seemed to be working fine as the call started up, his screen suddenly displaying Kuroko’s familiar expression and--

Aomine. With his shirt off. “What the fuck,” Taiga greeted him.

“Oi, Bakagami,” Aomine replied, and okay, that was probably less rude than Taiga’s greeting had been.

“Aho,” he responded, because he couldn’t _not_.

“I see I will not be needed to buffer any awkwardness. I will take my leave now,” Kuroko announced. Taiga opened his mouth to interrupt. He wanted to ask Kuroko why it had taken so long. Why Aomine had his shirt off. Why Taiga felt the need to put off this conversation for as long as possible.

He closed his mouth, waving goodbye to Kuroko. The other man nodded, the corner of his mouth lifting in a fond smile. Taiga would be the best person to recognize Kuroko’s supportive face, and that was definitely it. He took a deep breath as Kuroko left the room, and there was Aomine.

“You might want to put a shirt on before we keep talking,” Taiga said, reaching for one of his mugs to hide at least some of his face.

“Why?” Aomine asked. “And what’s with the sudden need to see my face on a screen? Did you miss it after all?” Taiga realized with a start how long it had been since he’d actually _heard_ Aomine’s voice. Even in the video clips they sent to each other, there was rarely any speaking. With an odd twist in his stomach, Taiga realized he had missed Aomine. His voice, how animated his face could be when he was talking, even the way the other man held himself, like he had 100% control of every part of his body.

“Just--uh. Why aren’t you wearing a shirt anyway?” Taiga asked, stalling but not being able to help it.

“Tetsu came over right after my morning workout. I figured I could just shower while he did whatever, but he took one look at my laptop and told me that we needed to go buy a new one,” Aomine said. He was still stubbornly refusing to put on a shirt. “So I took a shower once we got back.”

“... And just never put on a shirt?” Taiga continued.

“I usually don’t when I’m home by myself. What the hell is this obsession with my shirt?” Aomine growled, but his scrunched up eyebrows and vague pout showed that he was actually confused.

“I-I have to tell you something. A-and I don’t want you to be uncomfortable,” Taiga stuttered out. “Also--wait, you bought a brand new laptop for this?” he suddenly realized.

“Yeah. Needed a new one anyway. The old one is _slow_ and the screen is cracked. Tetsu said I wouldn’t be able to see your face,” Aomine replied, as if the implications of the statement were totally lost to him. Taiga quickly lifted up his mug to take another sip of coffee and hide his blush. So maybe Aomine missed his face too. “Also, it was hard to watch porn with my screen messed up like that.”

Ah, but the more things changed, the more things stayed the same. Taiga couldn’t help but laugh. “Your guerilla picture sending tactics worked, by the way. My teammates got an eyeful of you in a speedo.”

Aomine wiggled his eyebrows as if that wasn’t totally ridiculous. The sad part was that on his face and with that smirk, it sort of worked. “Finally! And what did they say?”

“Well, they thought you were a model,” Taiga started, watching Aomine preen like the ridiculous human peacock he was. “Then they fistbumped me for hitting that.”

Probably not the smoothest way to say it, and not exactly true to life, but Aomine was a guy who needed tactless, direct statements. Kuroko had said that all the time, had even reminded Taiga of it before this conversation. Taiga hadn’t actually told him what he was going to talk to Aomine about, but as always, his shadow knew.

He held his breath, wondering if Aomine was going to hang up or yell at him. If he honestly asked for clarification, Taiga was going to find a way to reach through the screen and strangle him.

Aomine did none of the above.

“You’re welcome,” Aomine replied, looking extremely pleased with himself. Taiga paused, uncertain if all that had gone over the other’s head or if he was missing something. “What? Don’t you want everyone thinking you’re capable of sleeping with a model? Because you’re not. Lying is the next best thing.”

Taiga spluttered. “I could so!” No, he couldn’t. “That’s not even the point!”

Aomine’s eyebrows scrunched together again. “Then what was the point? Aside from complimenting me, which I’m glad you’ve finally learned to do.”

“I’m trying to tell you that I’m gay,” Taiga growled out between gritted teeth.

“Oh,” Aomine said, suddenly sitting up a little straighter. _This is it_ , Taiga thought, _this is where it all goes downhill._

He was right, just not in the way he thought.

“That means you’ve done anal, right?”

Taiga’s jaw dropped. “ _That’s_ what you have to say?”

“I’m curious,” Aomine said, shrugging. “I’ve never been on the receiving end of it.”

“Me neither!” Taiga shouted without thinking, and wait-- “Why do you think _I_ would be the… one receiving?” The tiny screen showing what he looked like confirmed that he was as red as his hair, but whether it was due to the embarrassment or the anger, Taiga did not know.

“I figured you probably switched it up. Variety is the spice of life and all that,” Aomine said, perfectly straight-faced. Taiga couldn’t believe he was having this conversation. “Wait, so you’ve never been on the receiving end? Hmm. You _have_ had sex though, right?”

“Uh,” was Taiga’s eloquent reply. He wasn’t sure how to explain, or how much Aomine would even want to know, about Taiga’s troubled journey through dating. It wasn’t a very long one, as Taiga hadn’t tried at all in the years he was in Japan. He had been on a few awkward dates and received some awkward handjobs, but he’d never found someone he felt comfortable enough to have sex with. LA on average was very open and accepting, but the sports world kind of existed on a different plane.

“Are you fucking serious?” Aomine shouted, making Taiga jump in his seat. “You’ve never had sex?”

“ _This_ is what you’re getting upset about?” Taiga yelled right back.

“What else would I be upset about?”

“The fact that I’m gay!”

The shouting suddenly gave way to silence, and Taiga clutched at his empty coffee mug as he waited for a response. “Why would I care about that?” Aomine asked after a while, his face as serious as if he were on the basketball court. “Were you going to ask me to fuck you?”

Taiga choked. “No!”

“Good, because your boobs are too small,” Aomine replied, the out of character serious expression broken into a grin. An actual, friendly grin. “So, why would I care?”

“I… just wasn’t sure you’d be comfortable sending me pictures anymore once you knew,” Taiga explained, in awe of how well Aomine was taking this. “I-I mean I don’t _do_ anything with the pictures, b-but you might have been uncomfortable, and so it didn’t feel right that you didn’t know, and what if you were in LA one day for whatever reason and someone pointed at you and asked you if you were my boyfriend out of the blue--wouldn’t that be rude? And--”

“Okay, I get it,” Aomine interrupted. “You were trying to think about my feelings, but because you’re an _idiot_ , you thought yourself into a panic.”

“Hey!”

“You’re not the first gay guy I’ve met. We just don’t talk about it here,” Aomine explained. “Besides, I live assuming everyone wants me, men and women.”

“The shit that comes out of your mouth,” Taiga said, shaking his head in disbelief. Still, there was a smile on his face and every muscle in his body seemed to relax all at once. He let out a sigh of relief.

“Is that all you called me about? Did I seriously buy a new laptop for this?” Aomine asked after a moment, and Taiga glanced back at the screen to see a strange expression of Aomine’s face. There was a slight tilt to Aomine’s mouth, and after spending a year trying to read Kuroko’s expression, Taiga was pretty sure that the much easier to read Aomine was… disappointed?

“Well,” he started, because it sort of had been, but he hadn’t been expecting Aomine to buy a brand new laptop just to talk to him, to see his face. He also hadn’t anticipated how much he missed talking to Aomine, how much he missed playing basketball with him. “I did have a question about one of the moves I’m working on.”

“Ah, you’ve come to the right person, my pupil,” Aomine said, the disappointment lifting into what Taiga thought was his most punchable expression.

“Fuck you, maybe I won’t ask you then.”

“Fuck you, maybe I won’t help you then.”

Taiga eventually cracked and started talking to Aomine about his problem. Aomine, surprisingly, was helpful in return. 

The photos became a lot less frequent after their conversation. “You see my face at least twice a week now with these calls. I wouldn’t want you overdosing on my hotness. What if I ruin you for other men? Then you’ll _never_ lose your virginity.” Aomine explained.

Taiga hung up on him after that.

\--

It wasn’t meant to be a dare, just a prank. A very delicate, time-consuming, expensive prank. Not to mention the weird looks Taiga had gotten buying all of the damn things.

He went to classes, to practice, to games. In between, he would call his dad and make sure he was eating enough. He would voice chat with Kuroko about school and Nigou and their old classmates. At least twice a week, he would call Aomine, who seemed to pick up at any ridiculous hour of the day.

“I can sleep wherever, whenever. Naps are great,” Aomine said once after Taiga’s call had clearly woken him up.

“Don’t you have a job now?” Taiga asked, unable to ignore how cute Aomine’s expression was as he tried to wake himself up.

“Yeah, but it’s not any harder than high school basketball,” Aomine replied, yawning. “Actually, it’s probably easier. None of the other guys are playing, and you’re in _America_ ,” Aomine said, emphasizing the country’s name like it had done him some great wrong.

“You getting bored again?” Taiga asked, fear starting to bloom in his chest. He remembered what Aomine was like when he was ‘bored.’ More like depressed, and lashing out at anyone who would question him on it. Now that he had met Aomine at his best, Taiga really didn’t want to go back. How would Kuroko take it, having already suffered through it once? How would Momoi?

“Maybe,” Aomine admitted. “Don’t worry about it. Satsuki is making sure I’m functioning and at least I have you to talk to me about interesting basketball. Wish she’d learn to fucking cook though. We’re both fucked in that department.” 

“I wish I could play basketball with you again,” Taiga blurted out without thinking, struck by the sadness of that sentence and the way Aomine looked illuminated by just his computer screen.

Aomine looked right at him and replied, “Yeah, I wish you could too.”

After that call, Taiga spent more time on his pet project. It needed to be done and shipped to Kuroko by a certain date, and Taiga was worried he wouldn’t make it. Finishing it was a relief, but before he could pack everything, he stopped and dropped a pamphlet at the very bottom. It was cowardly; there was a chance he’d never see it. Still, he packed the box and sealed it with all of his hope inside.

And all of his sadism.

“What. The. _FUCK_ ,” Aomine greeted him.

“Why are you on Skype? Didn’t you have a Christmas get-together with the rest of the rainbow?” Taiga asked. It was purely to mock. He knew why. It was why he had answered even though he was on Christmas dinner duty. “Merry Christmas, by the way.”

“You fucker, Kuroko had me open that box in front of everyone!” Aomine screamed. Kuroko had always been the expert on torture. “All of the guys saw it. My old Tōō teammates, Satsuki, _everyone in the fucking Generation of Miracles_.”

At that point, Taiga stopped trying to hold in his laughter.

“At first, they thought I had just swayed you over to the dark side.” Taiga tried to stop laughing so he could hear the whole story. “But no. There was no way! I tried to stop them from opening them but--”

It didn’t work. He tried choking down his laughter, but the appalled look on Aomine’s face was too much.

“How many innocent porn magazines did you destroy for this?” he demanded, sounding so self-righteous that Taiga almost thought to feel bad. Almost.

“What do they think now?” Taiga asked in between bouts of laughter.

“What?”

“You said at first, they thought you had just tricked me into being as perverted as you.”

Aomine sighed. “Now they think these video chats are more like long distance booty calls. Midorima said that that explained why I had been so pissy the last two years of high school, and _Akashi_ congratulated me on our relationship! Akashi! He who supposedly knows everything!”

Okay, yeah, that was kind of worrying. He wasn’t sure what it meant that everyone had taken it in stride like that, but he figured the other members of the Generation of Miracles didn’t know much about him. But to his point. “Now you know how I felt with all those pictures!”

“Wait, really?” Aomine asked. “You… spent countless hours and who knows how much money cutting off the covers of straight porn magazines to put on gay porn magazines… to get back at me for some _pictures_?”

Well, put that way, Taiga did agree it sounded kind of crazy. “Worth it,” he said, bursting into laughter again at the memory of Aomine’s face.

Aomine then said something that Taiga didn’t really understand the meaning of until much, much later. “Oh, it is _on_ , fucker.”

“Wait, if they think these video calls are--”

“Satsuki said, and I quote, ‘Go call up Taiga and get your real Christmas present,’” Aomine explained, his eyebrows lifted suggestively. Taiga blushed. This was _not_ how he had planned on coming out to the rest of his friends in Japan, although he was grateful that they had apparently taken it well. “So?”

“So what?” Taiga asked.

“Aren’t you at least going to show me your nipples?”

Taiga hung up on him.

He realized later that Aomine hadn’t mentioned the NBA draft pamphlet Taiga had dropped at the bottom of the box. He probably threw the whole thing away once the prank was uncovered. Taiga spent the rest of the day trying to shake off the feeling of disappointment.

\--

Freshman year passed by quickly, and the NBA draft loomed at the end of it. Taiga knew he has a good reputation now, that the scouts were aware of him, and that the analysts thought he’d be picked in the first round. Most importantly, he was confident that he was a better basketball player now than he had been a year ago, thanks to his team and Alex and extra trainers.

Then there was Aomine, who was a perverted, loudmouthed bastard who never put his shirt on, but who had also been happy to swap training regimens and troubleshoot shots with him. Taiga wanted to invite him to the draft, even had plans to pay for his ticket, but a few months before the end of the semester, Aomine disappeared.

Or rather, Taiga called, and he didn’t pick up. At first, he figured it was a fluke. Maybe Aomine had been sleeping heavily enough not to hear. He tried again later in the week and again, there was no answer. After that week, Taiga never saw Aomine on Skype again.

“Is he dead?” he called Kuroko in a panic.

“Who?” Kuroko asked, as if he didn’t already know.

“Aomine! He wasn’t answering my calls, and now he’s not online at all--”

“He’s not dead,” Kuroko interrupted, and Taiga broke off his tirade to breathe a sigh of relief. “He’s just very busy with something very important.”

Taiga felt like he was being treated like one of Kuroko’s students, who were all kindergarteners. “I just--wanted to make sure he wasn’t getting bored.”

He expected alarm on Kuroko’s part or maybe curiosity. The bright open smile that appeared instead was surprising. Taiga felt himself complete relax at the sight of it. “Don’t worry, he’s not bored. I don’t think I’ve seen him this determined for a very long time.”

“Oh, okay,” Taiga mumbled. He felt a little out of the loop, but he was happy enough to hear that Aomine was okay that he would let it go for now. “Good. I meant to call you anyway. Do you want to come to the NBA draft this year? Alex will be coming, and so will my dad so you can meet him in person. I wanted to invite Aomine too but I don’t know how long he’ll be busy for.”

Kuroko nodded. “I wouldn’t miss your draft for anything, Kagami-kun. I know Aomine-kun wouldn’t either. I’ll make sure Momoi-san lets him know.”

Taiga sighed a breath of relief. “Thanks. Do you want me to buy your ticket for you?”

“No, that’s okay,” Kuroko said, much to Taiga’s surprise. “I’ve always known this was coming, Kagami-kun. I made sure to have money for the trip. However, I would appreciate sharing a hotel room.”

“Yeah, of course! I’ll handle all that. Just send me your flight details once you buy your ticket. I can send you the date and location--”

“I know the date and location,” Kuroko said, the brighter smile now shrunk down to an equally warm, fond tilt of the lips. “Don’t worry, Kagami-kun. Just focus on getting drafted. You aren’t qualified to do any other kind of work.”

“Hey!”

Kuroko’s reassurance had always been enough to drive Taiga to do his best, and that was what he focused on for the rest of the year. The end of June seemed impossibly far away, but the next thing he knew, he was in a hotel room in Brooklyn, fidgeting in his suit.

“You already have a good idea of which team is going to pick you, right Kagami-kun? Why are you still so nervous?” Kuroko was wearing a suit of his own, which really highlighted how petite he still was. He’d grown some, but never to the towering heights Taiga and Aomine eventually reached.

“Something could go wrong, they could decide not to pick me, or trade the pick without telling me,” Taiga listed off, fussing with his tie the entire time. He was sort of exhausted, not having slept the night before.

Kuroko, ever the loyal partner, had stayed up with him. He had claimed he was jet lagged anyway, so they had pretended to watch TV while they talked. Taiga had stared at the small ways in which Kuroko’s face and expressions had changed. It wasn’t like he never saw Kuroko, considering their frequent video chats, but it was nothing like having the real thing there. His presence alone was incredibly grounding.

“It’ll be fine, Kagami-kun. I believe in you,” Kuroko said, in the typical way he did. No extravagant promises, just the reassurance that things would go on and Kuroko would still be there.

He exhaled heavily, trying to calm down. “Aomine couldn’t make it after all, huh?”

Taiga hadn’t asked yesterday, not wanting the ensuing conversation to ruin the first time he had seen Kuroko in years. There was also a bit of hope that maybe Aomine had just decided to leave things to the last minute, but that he’d be there today.

But in the end, he hadn’t heard anything from him. Nothing. Not a text, not an email, not a fucking photo. Taiga could admit that hurt.

Kuroko made a thoughtful noise. “I believe in Aomine-kun too,” he said. Taiga had no idea what that meant and decided to leave it at that. It was time to head to the ceremony.

They grabbed his dad and Alex before starting the walk over. Taiga’s agent was meeting them there, so there was no need to be formal. Taiga talked to Kuroko about things they could do in New York after the draft, some sightseeing to make the ticket price worth it. “I bookmarked a bunch of places with good vanilla milkshakes,” he said, showing Kuroko the list on Yelp. Kuroko gave him a bright smile in return.

“Now Kuroko, remember to stick close to us in case someone doesn’t see you and tramples you by accident or something,” he said once they had made it inside Barclays Center. Kuroko rolled his eyes at that, but kept his arm and shoulder pressed up against Taiga’s. Probably more for his sake than Kuroko’s.

The ceremony went by both faster and slower than he expected. He greeted and shook hands with some of his UCLA teammates who were there, introduced them to Kuroko and his dad. Alex usually didn’t need much of an intro, and she was on her best behavior, shaking hands instead of kissing everyone. Her dress today was also only slightly scandalous.

His agent sat next to him at the table while they waited. “It shouldn’t be long,” he said. Taiga nodded. He couldn’t help but look through the crowd one last time, searching for Aomine to show up and call him an idiot. They’d start screaming at each other, and then Taiga wouldn’t feel so nervous.

Then all of a sudden, “With the 3rd pick in the 2018 draft, the LA Lakers select Taiga Kagami from UCLA.”

Taiga let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, standing on legs that were strong enough to jump over any defender but that felt weak and wobbly now. He turned to hug his dad, to hug Kuroko, to remind Alex not to kiss him on national television, and to shake his agent’s hand. Then he made his way up to the stage to accept his cap.

His hands were still shaking when they ushered him down, new Lakers cap on his head, and led him to the media area. “The Lakers have the next pick too, so we’ll interview you two together,” the interviewer said, and Taiga nodded, dropping down into one of the two chairs.

“I think I need a nap,” he said, painfully honest. The interviewer laughed.

But then, “With the 4th pick in the 2018 draft, the LA Lakers select Daiki Aomine from the Tokyo Cinq Reves.”

“What,” Taiga said, sure he had heard wrong. He was sleep deprived and giddy on success. Part of him would even admit that he wanted Aomine there so bad that hallucinating this wouldn’t be completely out of the realm of possibility--

But there he was, standing up from a table that had been behind Taiga’s. He was hugging a woman with pink hair that _had_ to be Momoi, shaking hands with another woman that was probably his agent, and then he was walking onto the stage where Taiga could get his first good look at him. He somehow looked even larger in real life. Not as broad as Taiga, but with an almost palpable presence. It helped that the suit he was wearing was perfectly tailored to him, hinting at all of the perfect lines underneath.

Taiga forced himself to take a deep breath. He forced himself to look at Aomine as he walked off the stage toward him. All the better to notice Aomine’s easy, confident smile turn into an actual grin, his eyes softening to something that almost felt private.

All the better to slug Aomine in the arm when he got close enough.

“Hey! What--” Aomine shouted. The interviewer and cameraman froze in surprise.

“How could you do this?” Taiga shouted right back. “You don’t contact me for _months_. I can’t even invite you to the draft, but you’re actually a part of it? On the same team as me? What the fuck?” There was a distant part of his brain that hoped the broadcast hadn’t switched to them yet.

“I wanted it to be a surprise, idiot!” Aomine screamed back with just as much indignation. “Isn’t this what you wanted? Or did that pamphlet fall into that box by accident?”

Taiga could feel his cheeks turning red, but he had a few more bones to pick with his future teammate. “We message each other everyday! We video chat at least twice a week! You couldn’t have told me? Warned me? Said anything?”

“What part of _surprise_ don’t you get, Bakagami?” Aomine responded, starting to look flustered himself. “You don’t think it sucked for me too? I had to get Satsuki to hide my laptop somewhere so that I wouldn’t call you!” They had kept inching toward each other as they argued and at this point, they probably looked close enough to punching each other that people were going to try to split them up.

For some reason, that thought was _terrifying_ to Taiga. He took advantage of their close proximity and threw both arms around Aomine’s shoulders, pulling him into a hug. Video chats were one thing, but they couldn’t give him the solid feel of Aomine’s body against his, the way the other man smelled, the way he hugged him back. “I missed you, and then I _missed_ you,” Taiga choked out to Aomine’s shoulder, refusing to look up.

“Yeah, me too,” Aomine said, his own arms wrapped around Taiga’s back. “I thought about trying to get drafted by a different team, playing _against_ you, but the distance wasn’t worth four games a year.”

“The LA Clippers aren’t that far away,” Taiga pointed out.

“Far enough,” Aomine responded. “I’m tired of the whole long distance booty call thing.”

Taiga drew back and smiled at Aomine fondly, because that was definitely something he would say--

Oh shit, on national television. In front of both of their agents, his dad, Alex, Momoi, Kuroko, and literally everyone watching who understood Japanese.

The panicked look must have communicated Taiga’s thoughts eloquently enough, because the interviewer said, “Don’t worry. We’re not broadcasting you right now.” Taiga could _taste_ how relieved he was. “I… assume you guys have history?”

“Yeah,” Aomine replied. “We played against each other in high school.”

In English. Actually passable English.

“What?” Taiga asked. That brought out that familiar fucking smirk, the one that hadn’t changed since their first one-on-one, except maybe he sort of thought it was attractive now.

“I did more to prepare than just train for the draft,” Aomine said, again in English.

Fuck, his voice in English was attractive too.

They did the interview, the media shoots, basically everything together. Rather than it being a burden to share the spotlight with someone else, Taiga was just glad he didn’t have to take his eyes off Aomine. “You should call me Daiki. We’re in America now, right _Taiga_?”

Taiga felt a shiver run down his spine. It was surprisingly pleasant. “Sure, _Daiki_. Hey, how do you feel about the fact that I got picked before you?”

The other man scowled. “ _Right_ before me, the order wouldn’t even have mattered! Besides, if they had called my name before yours, your legs would have been too weak with shock to carry you up those steps.” Damnably true.

Their friends who were watching the broadcast reassured them later that if they had fought, it wasn’t anywhere on television. The hug was another story. Apparently, it was one of the highlights of the draft, and there were already stories being spun about how their friendship had withstood the test of time and distance, and now fate had brought them together again.

“Are you _sure_ he’s not your boyfriend?” his dad asked him later that night while they were all eating dinner together to celebrate their joint draft. _Daiki_ had apparently been the one to pay for Kuroko’s ticket and had also brought Momoi for support. His parents hadn’t been able to take time off work, and Daiki admitted that they probably weren’t thrilled he was leaving Japan. “He seems like a nice young man,” his dad prodded him.

Taiga gave his father a tired look. “You just haven’t spent enough time with him yet.”

\--

The Summer League was _amazing_ , if only because he got to watch Daiki’s basketball again. It was somehow even more fluid than before, grace propelling his aggressive plays. He was fast, creative, and could basically spend the whole game in the Zone. There were very few other players who might have been considered on equal footing with him at the start of the games, and by the time the Lakers took the championship at the end of summer, Daiki had obviously surpassed them all.

“I hope you don’t get bored of us too,” Taiga said, trying to conceal his very real worry behind courtside taunts.

“I’m not going to get bored while you’re around,” Daiki replied, sounding perfectly serious. Taiga decided he could believe him, if only because of the childlike grin on his face every time they got to face off against each other in practice or in private one-on-ones after the games were over.

They worked well together too, which was apparently what management had been hoping for when they had drafted the two of them. “They saw the Vorpal Swords game,” Daiki explained. “Or rather, my agent made them watch it.”

Taiga was glad that the teamwork Daiki had sold the Lakers on was as good as advertised. At least it _felt_ like it was good, with the way he always knew where Daiki was, what he was thinking, what they could do together. Luckily, Daiki had also gotten much better at passing to other players, and while they didn’t have Takao’s hawk eyes, the two of them had developed good enough sense to cover at least half of the court.

Between the two of them, their opponents never got any rest. Every lost point was one the other team had fought for with either Daiki or Taiga right on their heels, and while neither of them were the tallest the NBA had seen, they both had the kind of presence that made their mark feel like they were being hunted. The other team tired out. Daiki and Taiga did not.

“What kind of fucking monsters are you?” one of the free agents playing for their team that summer asked, voice a mix of awe and fear.

Daiki leaned close to Taiga, staring at him with unblinking eyes. He would have moved away, if he weren’t already leaning against a locker. “Nah, I’m pretty sure he’s still a virgin.”

“You _bastard_ , you totally understood what he meant! Don’t take things the wrong way on purpose!” That broke the tension, at least.

By the end of summer, they were both being offered rookie contracts with the Lakers. “We’ll probably try starting you guys in at least one of the preseason matches,” their coach warned as well. Taiga’s jaw dropped. Daiki just nodded, like the conceited idiot he was.

“Do you not get how _huge_ this is?” Taiga whined once they had gotten back to LA. He had asked his dad to find an apartment for him during the summer. Apparently, Daiki had asked the same, and now they were moving into one huge three bedroom apartment instead of two separate ones.

Daiki shrugged, picking up one of the boxes the movers had dropped off and taking it to the bedroom he had instantly called dibs on. It was the biggest bedroom, because of course. “It happens though, doesn’t it?”

“Well, yeah, but I didn’t think it’d happen to _me_ ,” Taiga said. He was unpacking his kitchen tools because Daiki probably didn’t know what half of the things were and Taiga didn’t want to risk him breaking them. Having seen his room in the background of their video calls, Taiga figured Daiki would be a challenging roommate to live with.

For some reason, he didn’t really mind. A few years living alone had taught Taiga that while he could certainly do it, he didn’t prefer it. Also, this gave them a chance to practice Daiki’s English, which was actually already pretty good for someone who had just started studying seriously in the past 9 months.

“That’s why it didn’t happen to you, idiot. It happened to _us_. You’re welcome,” Daiki said. Taiga was too used to that by now to even get angry. He just rolled his eyes and continued unpacking the mixer. “Which box did you hide your porn in?”

“I still do not have porn,” Taiga said.

“Is it on your laptop?” Daiki kept pushing.

“I don’t fucking download it,” Taiga told him.

“That’s what browser histories are for,” Daiki agreed. They shared a look over the kitchen counter before they were suddenly breaking off to run toward Taiga’s room.

“Don’t you _dare_ touch my laptop!” he shouted.

“What, you don’t password protect it? You naive little lamb.” The counter had given Daiki just enough of a headstart that he made it to the laptop first, scooping it up and wrapping it securely in both arms.

“Why the fuck are you calling me a lamb?” Taiga growled, ready to fight Daiki to the death for his laptop. There were a few hundred things on there that he couldn’t let the other man see, and none of them were in his browser history.

“Because it’s true,” Daiki taunted. “Come on, I can’t believe you’re watching anything kinkier than missionary.”

“I--” Taiga started to object, face already turning red, but Daiki used that to feint around him. It felt a little like they were on the court, and Taiga _really_ needed to block this basket. He tried to trip Daiki, to which the other man yelled ‘foul!’ but that stupid catlike gracefulness he had developed in the last few years saved him. Taiga was right on his heels, but Daiki was willing to play dirty, kicking stuff into Taiga’s path.

He eventually tripped over what was probably a box of Daiki’s gravure magazines, because _of course_ he would. Taiga watched with a growing sense of dread as Daiki ran into his room, shutting and locking the door. Trying to ignore the way his heart was suddenly pounding, he picked himself up and walked slowly to the other’s bedroom. He plopped down outside, waiting for Daiki to see it, get angry, and leave.

Taiga could live by himself again. He was perfectly capable of it. It was just--he didn’t _want_ to.

The door opened again ten minutes later, and as reluctant as Taiga was to look at Daiki’s face, he had to know. He glanced up from where he was sitting and saw Daiki, looking a bit embarrassed and with his ears a little red. _His ears blush for him,_ Taiga thought. _That’s cute_.

“You kept them all,” Daiki said after a moment. “All 300 of them.”

“Y-Yeah. I don’t have a lot of photos of my friends,” Taiga mumbled. “And I don’t know. Maybe I missed your face.”

Daiki’s face broke into a huge smile, completely devoid of any teasing or taunting, and a tiny part of Taiga’s brain thought, _I really wish he liked guys_. “I’m going to tell everyone you finally admitted it.” He held a hand out to help Taiga up.

“I thought they were already convinced of our epic love story?” Taiga drawled, grabbing Daiki’s hand.

“No, no. They just thought we were having phone sex. Computer sex?” Daiki stared at Taiga’s laptop as if it held the answers to this dilemma. “Now, they’ll know we’re forever.”

Taiga couldn’t help the blush, the sudden racing of his heart. “I think they figured that out when you suddenly jumped into the NBA draft for me.”

“True,” Daiki said, much to Taiga’s surprise. The other man wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him in for a quick hug.

“I can’t believe you made Kuroko and Momoi take 300 photos of you,” Taiga said after a moment, trying to break up the tension.

“Nah, it was less than that. I didn’t make them take the shirtless ones.”

They started in the first preseason game. Taiga, predictably, had not slept all night. He wasn’t tired though. Standing on this court, who could be? He looked over at Daiki next to him, wearing his number 5 again, just in different colors. “Keep up,” he said, holding out a fist for him to bump.

“You don’t have to tell me that,” Taiga scowled, but he was smiling as he reached out to return the gesture.

They did stupidly well that night, Taiga focusing on defense and turning the ball over to Daiki, who was always there, ready for the pass. In the rare cases he missed, Taiga was usually back, fighting for the rebound. Not that everything went smoothly, but their veteran teammates were quick to help correct any mistakes they made.

They started in almost every preseason game after that, resting just before the season started. Daiki insisted it was because they were going to be part of the starting lineup. Taiga refused to be that optimistic.

“You’re starting,” the coach said, clearly directed at _both_ of them, because they were somehow a joint package now. Taiga wasn’t even mad about Daiki’s shit-eating grin.

\--

For some reason, Taiga always thought the first person to visit them after their successful NBA debut would be Kuroko or Momoi. He never even considered Kise.

“Kagamicchi!” Kise shouted from the entrance of the gym. Daiki was, of course, conveniently working with the trainers in the back, so their teammates had no one to stare at except Taiga.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded, switching smoothly to Japanese. “Who even let you in?”

“Ah, one of the gym employees is a fan,” Kise explained, walking over with a smile. They hadn’t quite been friends when Taiga had left, but Kise had probably been the easiest of the Generation of Miracles to get along with, so Taiga tried his best to be civil.

At least until Kise reached out with both arms, trapping him in a hug. _So this is how Kuroko feels,_ Taiga thought for a moment, before throwing Kise off. “Hey, since when do we hug?” he scowled.

“Aw, don’t be so mean! I’ve always hugged people! Maybe it got worse after I started modeling for real,” Kise admitted, still standing entirely too close.

That was when Taiga noticed his outfit, with the tight, almost sheer shirt and the skinny jeans. They looked plain, if well made, but Taiga was sure they cost more than he cared to know. Topped with the designer sunglasses Kise was wearing on his head and the probably designer gym shoes he was wearing, the carefully styled hair and ridiculous jewelry, Taiga had to admit he looked like a model. It helped that at some point, he had grown out of the pretty boy look. He still had delicate features, but with just enough of a masculine that Kise’s face probably would appeal to a wide audience.

No wonder he had stuck with modeling.

“You didn’t answer my question. What are you doing here?” Taiga asked again.

“I’m visiting!” Kise said, as if that were obvious. He then turned around to the rest of the court and waved enthusiastically. “Hello! I’m Taiga and Daiki’s friend from Japan.” It made sense, Taiga thought, that Kise would know English too. The reality of it still blew his mind.

Everyone greeted him, some more awkward than others. While Kise went on his social tour of the Lakers, a few of the teammates sidled up to Taiga to ask if that was _really_ the supermodel, Ryota Kise.

“Yeah,” he said. “We used to play basketball against each other.”

He got some strange looks for that.

“Where’s Aominecchi anyway?” Kise asked once he was finished, switching back to Japanese.

“He’s in the back, working with the trainers. I can show you back there,” he offered, the annoyance of having practice interrupted fading with the excitement of seeing a friendly face again. He really hadn’t seen Kise since he left Japan, except for maybe in photos Kuroko sometimes sent him and at magazine stands.

“Ah, it’s okay! I have to get to a shoot anyway. Can we have dinner later though? It’s been so long since I’ve eaten Kagamicchi’s cooking,” Kise whined, again throwing his arms around Taiga and _clinging_.

“Why the hell would I cook when we’re in LA with _all of the good food_?” Taiga grouched.

“It’s a lot easier for me to eat at a restaurant than it is to have Kagamicchi’s cooking! Besides, I promised Kurokocchi that I would definitely get to eat your cooking so he could live vicariously through me,” Kise explained, face lighting up again.

Blushing at the compliment and swayed by the mention of Kuroko, Taiga gave in. “What do you want for dinner?”

“Whatever Aominecchi is already making you cook works,” Kise laughed. Taiga couldn’t help but laugh alongside.

“He really hasn’t changed,” he agreed.

“Oh? I think he’s changed a lot,” Kise objected, looking thoughtful. “In a good way. I’m so jealous of him all over again! I thought I’d outgrown that.”

Taiga opened his mouth to ask what Kise meant when one of the assistant coaches finally appeared, looking curious about the disruption.

“Ah, I’ll see you later then! Aominecchi still has my phone number! Make him text me your address!” Kise shouted before running out of there, slyly avoiding any trouble he might have been in for sneaking into their practice.

“Fucking Kise,” he mumbled before turning back to the rest of his team--

Who were still shooting him odd looks.

“What? Is there something on my face?” They all simultaneously turned away. That was weird.

He didn’t get an explanation until practice was over and everyone was in the locker room. Taiga was in a bit of a rush, because Daiki had a meeting with the nutritionist today, and he had asked to sit in.

“Hey Tai, can I talk to you?” asked one of their teammates, a few years senior to them.

“Sure,” Taiga said, slowing the packing process. He didn’t usually get a direct request from one of the other guys to talk.

“You know, usually, we don’t care what anyone does. Not our place to judge or interfere, but considering both you and Daiki are on the team, I think something has to be said.” _Oh_ , Taiga thought, it was probably about the way Kise had rudely interrupted practice. He opened his mouth to apologize for their friend’s annoying appearance when he was beaten to the punch. “You’re not cheating on Daiki with that model, are you?”

Taiga could feel himself choking on air. “ _What?_ ”

“Just saying, you guys looked really cozy, and I’m not judging, but I don’t want this messing with the team.” Taiga opened his mouth to try to say something again, but no. No, he still couldn’t get anything out around his shock. “I’m surprised though, you and Daiki seem pretty happy together. Oh, unless you guys are in an open relationship?”

“Absolutely not,” Taiga finally managed to splutter. “Kise is just an old friend, and he knew Daiki before I ever met him!”

His teammate nodded, shoulders slumping like he was relieved. _As if Kise were an actual threat,_ what the hell.

“Also, Daiki and I aren’t together,” he said, maybe a bit louder than he should have, since the rest of the locker room paused to look at him. Taiga wasn’t always the most socially aware of guys, but even he could read the disbelief radiating off of them. “We aren’t!”

“Tai, you don’t gotta lie to us,” one of the other guys said. “We support you. You guys are pretty cute together honestly.”

“But we aren’t together,” Taiga insisted.

“Aren’t you going to his nutritionist meeting?” someone else shot at him, as if that proved anything.

“Well, sometimes he’s a picky asshole who won’t eat anything unless I make it, so I figure I should at least force him to eat what the nutritionist wants!” Taiga argued. He thought that was a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Everyone else apparently thought so too, but for the other side of the argument.

Taiga opened his mouth to continue to object when he felt familiar arms on his shoulders and an annoying weight resting on his head. “Daiki, get off me.”

“No. What are we talking about?” he asked, looking curiously around the locker room.

“Kise visited,” Taiga growled. “Did you know he was coming to LA?”

“Nope. Hey, did he leave without saying anything to me?” Daiki asked, sounding offended.

“He wants to come by for dinner later,” Taiga said. “Oh, you need to text him our address. He said you had his number.”

“Sure, I’ll do that after our meeting. That you’re late for, by the way,” Daiki said, poking a sharp finger into Taiga’s side. Wincing, Taiga finished throwing his stuff into his duffel bag and zipped it up, and Daiki finally moved away to give him space to stand up.

“Hey Daiki,” one of the other guys called out to them. “You and Tai are together, right?” Taiga paused, almost relieved at the question. They would probably believe Daiki if he said no. The man was overtly heterosexual, and it was impossible in Taiga’s mind for anyone to think Daiki would date a guy. All of their teammates had heard his lecture on the greatness of boobs, after all.

“Ah, yeah. Why, you interested?” Daiki teased, and that broke the locker room tension, everyone chuckling and going back to packing up.

_And wait, what?_

“What the hell did you just say?” Taiga hissed as Daiki pulled him along toward the nutritionist's office. “That wasn’t a joke! They were serious!”

“So was I,” Daiki said, and Taiga let himself hope for a second that _maybe_ \-- “Remember your Christmas present?”

 _What?_ “What?” Taiga asked, because if all it had taken to turn Daiki to guys was a bunch of porn mags…

“If you want everyone to think we’re a happy little gay couple, then two can play at that game.” The bottom dropped out of Taiga’s stomach. He knew that smirk on Daiki’s face, that stupid competitive grin.

“Are we suddenly playing gay chicken?” Taiga asked.

“Suddenly? It’s been almost a year.”

“You’re such an assface,” Taiga growled, hitching his duffel bag further up on his shoulder to try and hide how crushed he felt, and how stupid he felt for feeling crushed. He had _just_ been reminding himself of Daiki’s blatant heterosexuality. “How am I ever going to lose my virginity if everyone thinks I’m dating you?” he tried to make a joke out of it.

Daiki pulled him to a stop, and Taiga turned around to see a shocked look on his face. “Wait, you’re _still_ a virgin?”

“Maybe don’t shout that?” Taiga hissed, giving Daiki a push. It didn’t get Daiki’s hand off his shoulder.

“You know, I bet Kise probably has a friend that’d be interested,” Daiki said with one of the most serious looks Taiga had ever seen on his face.

“Not a fucking chance,” Taiga snapped, feeling the ache in his chest turn sharp at the thought that Daiki would even suggest it. “Besides, I thought you wanted everyone to think we were together?”

“Not if it gets in the way of sex,” Daiki objected. “I’m a dick, not evil.”

Taiga walked away, pointedly ignoring Daiki as he walked toward the nutritionist’s office. He wanted to be able to sit there and take notes on how many calories Daiki needed of each food group, not think about how attached he’d become to his teammate.

 _He said me being gay didn’t concern him as long as I didn’t want him_ , Taiga thought. _Does this mean I have to tell him?_

But the fear of losing Daiki made him grit his teeth and stay silent, all the way through the meeting and the car ride home. Even when he started preparing dinner for three and when Kise showed up in a new outfit and with an armful of gifts from everyone.

“Who the hell got us a pamphlet on HIV prevention drugs?” Daiki asked, reading through the brochure. Taiga immediately stood up to go tend to the fish and chips Daiki had requested.

“Midorima-sensei, of course,” Kise said. “I told him you guys didn’t need it since you’re probably monogamous with each other, but he insisted. Better safe than sorry, I guess.”

Taiga almost splashed oil on himself. It had been several months since they had become roommates, and he realized he’d never seen Daiki bring someone home. This was either the longest the man had ever been celibate or Daiki took them somewhere else. They spent almost every minute of the day together though, the only times they spent apart were when they were in different hotel rooms at away games, but even then, Daiki usually invaded his room until lights out.

“So Kise still thinks we’re together?” Taiga asked once the model had left for the day, excusing himself earlier than Taiga had thought he would to get some sleep before an early morning shoot.

“I think most of the Miracles do,” Daiki confirmed, sifting through the opened gifts and their packaging.

“... How long are we going to keep up the game?”

“Until you get sick of being a virgin and give up,” Daiki said, throwing a smirk over his shoulder. “Hey, they got us a pan specifically to cook _tamago_. You were just complaining about that.”

Taiga opened his mouth to give up, end the game now. He didn’t want to hold Daiki back, and while the other guy was a little too focused on sex, he was right in that Taiga wanted to date eventually. At the same time, Taiga couldn’t imagine what Daiki would be like without this pretense. Would he touch Taiga less? Start bringing women home?

“I wouldn’t complain so much if you didn’t constantly force me to make it. I bet Momoi was the one who bought it--she knows what you’re like,” he says instead.

“Ah, you love it,” Daiki waved off. Taiga bit his tongue but acknowledged to himself that yeah, he did.

\--

In the end, it had taken until almost Christmas before Daiki realized that Taiga couldn’t sleep before games. Taiga had always been careful about not making any noise, generally keeping to his room so that he wouldn’t bother Daiki. Their bedrooms were on the opposite sides of the apartment, so Taiga figured it’d be an easy secret to keep.

He wasn’t anticipating Kuroko. Years later, and Taiga still couldn’t see him coming.

“What are you doing in my room?” Taiga asked, walking into his bedroom to find Daiki adjusting his sheets. He was shirtless, as he preferred to be at home even in the middle of winter, with a soft looking pair of sweatpants on.

“Going to sleep. Can you get the lights?”

“Did you switch rooms without telling me?” Taiga asked.

“No, now get your damn ass in bed.” Realizing that Taiga was just going to continue to stand there and gawk, Daiki reached out a hand--to what? Turn off the light himself? Taiga wasn’t expecting him to actually grab his wrist and drag him onto the bed, ignoring Taiga’s squawks of indignation while Daiki went to turn off the light.

He then threw himself onto the bed next to Taiga and with no further explanation, trapped him there with an arm and a leg. “What the fuck,” Taiga said, too dazed to make it a question.

“Kuroko said you don’t sleep before games. Which explains why you always look like shit those days,” Daiki said. His eyes were already closed, and he had tucked his head against Taiga’s shoulder, uncomfortably close.

Actually, Daiki looked very comfortable. Taiga was the one grateful that he couldn’t feel any of Daiki’s skin through his shirt and sweatpants. “Does that explain why you’re in my bed?”

“If I make you feel awkward enough, you’ll probably do anything to try to ignore the situation. I’m not going to let you go, so your choices are really to fall asleep or jerk off. I don’t care which.” Taiga was really glad Daiki couldn’t see his blush at that moment.

“That’s a really stupid plan and it’s not going to work,” he finally growled.

“Worth trying. Now shh, I need my beauty sleep.” Staying true to his reputation of being able to sleep anywhere, Daiki seemed to drop off a few minutes later, his breaths against Taiga’s neck steadying to a slow rhythm. Taiga tried peeling his arm and leg off, but like some kind of carnivorous vine that smelled a meal, Daiki just tightened his hold on Taiga.

“This is dumb,” Taiga said, unable to bring himself to raise his voice when Daiki looked so comfortable. “There’s no way this is going to help me sleep. It’s just going to stress me out more.” There was no response from his bedmate.

So Taiga lay there and waited for the stress of tomorrow’s game to start an unfortunate spiral of thoughts, but he kept getting distracted by thoughts of _Daiki_ , in his _bed_ , looking so comfortable and randomly smiling in his sleep. Kagami could feel the rise and fall of his breathing against his side, and he kept getting lost in the heat of the other man’s body.

He fell asleep, and when he woke up the next morning, it was to Daiki smirking and saying, “I told you so.” Taiga walked off to make breakfast, refusing to dignify that with a response.

Now, convinced that he was the cure to all of Taiga’s problems, Daiki took to making sure they slept together every night before a game. He even told the coaching staff that he didn’t need his own room on road games, and Taiga wanted to die, because everybody knew there was only one bed in each room.

The staff gave in a little too easily to that request, and Taiga found himself forced to manage Daiki even in the sanctity of his own hotel room. “Don’t take my shirt to wear!” It was one of his old UCLA ones, and the team knew for a fact that Daiki hadn’t gone to UCLA.

“I didn’t pack enough!” Daiki objected.

“Why didn’t you pack enough?” he scowled. “Just ask the hotel staff to get you a new shirt!”

“But this shirt’s already been broken in,” Daiki refused, ending their conversation by just walking out the door while _wearing Taiga’s shirt_.

“Not dating, huh?” one of his teammates teased, a group of them walking by his open door. Taiga probably would have put up more of a fight, except he did feel better with Daiki sharing his room. It was more than getting good sleep; it was the confirmation that Daiki didn’t pick up women on the road either.

The other positive was that with the improved sleep, Taiga was managing to play even better. His numbers went up, he seemed to have more stamina, and he did a better job at coordinating with his other teammates. The coaching staff, noticing the correlation with Daiki’s request for them to share a room, gave them a _look_. “You should talk to the front office about contingency plans,” one of them told Taiga as he helped him stretch after a workout.

“Contingency plans?”

“In case you guys get outed,” he replied. Taiga’s first thought was to object, but then he remembered that hey, he actually was gay, and that was probably a good idea. Might as well drag Daiki along with to make him feel uncomfortable.

Of course, Daiki remained unruffled. Taiga was the one who felt overwhelmed and incredibly anxious about all of the steps that would be involved. Media interference, press conferences, interviews. If the truth came out, instead of turtling away, it seemed like Taiga’s only choice would be to spend even more time in the spotlight. Trying to show that it didn’t affect his performance on the court, that he wasn’t about to burst into flowery song and corrupt the children.

He was almost rueful about the other man’s calm demeanor, but he realized it only made sense. This didn’t involve Daiki. He wasn’t actually gay. If rumors came out about Daiki, he could just get up to some amazing flings with some gossipy women, and it’d probably be fine.

Still, Daiki sat there and offered Taiga his hand to squeeze when all Taiga wanted to do was get up and run out. He paid attention, a second set of ears that would be helpful because Taiga was sure he was missing a lot of it through his panic.

That evening, when they got home, Daiki shooed Taiga out of the kitchen. “You’re not going to cook,” Taiga said, a statement because he knew Daiki too well.

Daiki scoffed. “Of course not. I’m ordering takeout.”

They ate to the sound of a random sitcom on Netflix, Daiki’s daily English practice. Taiga dreaded the end of the episode, when Daiki would get up and get ready for bed in his own room. He dragged himself to his own bathroom with great reluctance, taking as long as possible to shower and brush his teeth. He noticed he had one of Daiki’s sweaters, which had a small hole in it that he had offered to repair. Feeling a bit guilty and a lot pathetic, he put it on and was grateful it still smelled like the other man.

It made it a lot more awkward to walk into his bedroom to find Daiki there, getting ready for bed as if there was a game the next day. “Uh,” Taiga started and then stopped. Daiki knew perfectly well they weren’t playing tomorrow.

“I figured you were just going to end up staying awake all night without me, like the idiot you are,” Daiki explained, his eyes looking Taiga up and down. There was no hoping Daiki hadn’t noticed it was his. Taiga held his breath and fidgeted, waiting for Daiki’s final decision. “You’re probably going to get hot wearing that.”

Taiga immediately moved to take the sweater off, chastised, but Daiki stopped him, grabbing one of the sweater’s sleeves and using it to pull Taiga toward him. He stumbled, and they met halfway over the bed, where Daiki steadied him with a hand under his chin and their foreheads pressed together.

“I mean that if you get hot, take the sweater off instead of kicking the covers off both of us. My nips were fucking freezing the last time you did that.” Taiga laughed weakly and situated himself anxiously on the bed while Daiki went and turned the lights off.

While he was used to Daiki acting like a needy octopus at night, Taiga had always tried not to fall asleep clutching at the other man. He hadn’t always kept to that resolution during the night, and sometimes he woke up with their legs tangled together. Tonight, he was too tired for pretenses, and he tucked his head against Daiki’s chest, using his arm to pull the other man closer to him.

He woke up with the sweater off, wrapped to the top of his head in the covers with Daiki draped on top of him. After that, Taiga was a lot less meticulous about separating their laundry and Daiki slept in his room more often than not.

\--

The problem with them sharing Taiga’s room more often than not was that his already limited private time had shrunk to zero. Daiki had no shame, and he would regularly go to his room after announcing, “I’m going to go watch porn and jerk off.”

Taiga felt, he thought, understandably awkward about masturbating at the same time as Daiki, especially when he _knew_ Daiki was jerking off. So he kept his alone time limited to his showers and tried his hardest _not_ to feel frustrated.

It didn’t work.

To make matters worse, he had gotten into the masochistic tendency of researching everything to do with gay sex whenever Daiki locked himself in his room. He had learned all about preparation and correct kinds of lube and sex toy safety, and he had even hovered his mouse on the ‘Buy’ button for a few interesting looking things before he stopped himself, partly out of embarrassment, partly because he knew it’d be close to impossible to hide it from Daiki.

Convinced that he just didn’t want to be teased, Taiga eventually got desperate enough to just order a good water-based lube and beginner friendly silicone dildo with suction cup. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with them when they arrived, but he carefully checked the tracking notifications and on the day his package was supposed to be there, Taiga made sure he was the one who picked up the mail. He threw the discreet brown box into his room before Daiki could see it, and he bided his time for the right moment to open it.

As if the god of frustrated single gay men were smiling down on him, he only had to wait a week before Daiki was asked to stay after practice to try and teach some of the other players his formless shot. Taiga would typically stay and practice the shot with them, but he told Daiki he wasn’t feeling well and escaped home first.

He was able to cut through a lot of the embarrassment and awkwardness by treating the preparation like they were just more chores he had to do. By the time everything was cleaned and Taiga had locked himself inside his bathroom--because it was way too creepy to do this on the same bed he shared with Daiki--he felt pretty calm.

Except then he remembered that he needed to play some obnoxiously loud music, just in case Daiki got home early. He wasn’t sure how loud he was going to be, and he didn’t want to risk anything. He made sure he set out a snack, in case Daiki was hungry when he got home and broke down the door to force Taiga to make him food. Taiga debated with himself the merits of watching porn on his tablet or something else, but he figured he’d be too nervous for that anyway--and he really needed to get started if he was hoping to finish before Daiki got home.

With a deep breath and a healthy amount of lube, he reached down and started to open himself up. This wasn’t too scary, as he had fingered himself before, but it had been a while. He took it slow and remembered to be grateful for a basketball player’s wingspan, which made this at least a little more comfortable. His other hand moved lazily between his nipples and his cock, but he didn’t particularly care about being turned on just yet.

Once he figured he was ready, he made sure to get more lube for the dildo. Taking another deep breath before positioning it, he slowly exhaled as he worked it in. It felt like eternity before it was completely in, and he took a moment to adjust, breathing around the feeling of fullness. Part of his brain was freaking out that he had gotten this far, and the other part insisted he keep going before someone interrupted him.

So biting on his lower lip, he started to ease it in and out while his other hand focused on stroking himself to full hardness. The friction was nice, so he sped up, using a bit more strength as he thrust in, and that was enough to get him moaning. Stopping a second to gag himself with the hem of his shirt, he went back to trying different angles and different speeds. By the time he figured he couldn’t hold off his orgasm any longer, he knew exactly what to do, where to hit, and just how hard he wanted it. His back arched with every thrust and he was glad for the makeshift shirt gag because he sounded loud even to his own pleasure-lost senses.

Taiga didn’t think about anyone else, didn’t need to. This was purely for him, and he had enough built up sexual frustration that just being able to make himself feel good was motivation enough.

He came so hard his toes curled and he kicked over the hamper. All of his muscles simultaneously relaxed after, and Taiga didn’t even have the energy to pull out the dildo, enjoying the last few moments of fullness before he’d have to clean up. He’d also ejaculated hard enough for some to get on his shirt, and he reminded himself to throw everything in the laundry before Daiki got home.

Especially, he realized, as this was _his_ shirt, back from his Tokyo Cinq Reves days. Closing his eyes in exasperation, he made a note to just permanently keep this shirt out of the other man’s hands. Taiga would die of embarrassment and shame if he ever allowed Daiki to wear it again.

Once he felt sensation other than tingling come back to his limbs, Taiga got up, cleaned up, threw everything in the laundry, and went to shower. By the time he finished, Daiki still wasn’t home yet. Satisfied with his accomplishment, he decided to make teriyaki burgers. They’d be a good apology for ditching Daiki at the gym.

“You always know what I want,” Daiki said as soon he stepped into the apartment, the smell of teriyaki instantly recognizable.

“That’s because you always want teriyaki burgers,” Taiga shot back.

“Aren’t you glad I’m so easy to please?” He even batted his eyelashes. Taiga laughed and told him to go shower. The burgers were done around the same time Daiki was, so Taiga allowed him to just sit down as he dished up three for Daiki and ten for himself. He brought them over before turning back to grab the condiments and the fried zucchini he had prepared as a side dish.

Daiki was looking at him strangely when he turned back. “What?” he asked, anxiety building up in his stomach. He looked down at his clothes. They were fresh from the laundry and definitely devoid of cum stains. 

“Did you comb your hair differently?” he asked after a long pause. Taiga almost fainted with relief.

“No, you’re imagining things,” he said. They settled in to eat after that, talk pushed aside for hunger. It wasn’t until somewhere between Daiki’s second burger and Taiga’s fifth, that the other man spoke up again.

“So, how was the anal?” he asked.

“Surprisingly good,” Taiga replied. He kept chewing for a bit until he noticed Daiki smirking at him, and then he realized what he had said. Choking on teriyaki sauce _burned_. “How did you know?” he managed to rasp out.

“Taiga, I’ve spent six months watching the way you move. I can tell when you’re limping. It’s not that obvious, though,” Daiki said, resting his chin on his hand as he continued to taunt Taiga with that grin. “Did you buy a dildo? How big is it? Does it vibrate? What kind of porn were you watching when you did it?”

“I am _not_ talking about this with you!” Taiga shouted, quickly stuffing more burger into his mouth to show that the conversation was over.

Daiki pouted and Taiga figured that was the last of it, only for the smirk to spread across his face once more. “Hey, I get to know if you did it on our bed though, right?”

Taiga instantly regretted taking such a big bite. He needed a few minutes to keep himself from choking, and Daiki wasn’t helpful at all with the hard pats on his back. Taiga wasn’t sure which part of that sentence was more outrageous, the fact that Daiki wanted to know _where_ he had gotten himself off or him calling it _their_ bed.

“I did not,” he said, after taking some time to gather himself.

“Boring,” Daiki complained, and who even complained about that? “You know you can always tell me to lock myself in another room if you want some time to yourself, right?” It was said in a warm tone, the kind Daiki used whenever tensions were running too high on the court and Daiki would hold him close and say, _hey, I’m right here with you._ The effect was completely ruined by the addition of eyebrow waggling.

“... I might take you up on that,” Taiga eventually admitted, because he definitely remembered how frustrated he had been.

For Christmas, Taiga got Daiki noise-cancelling headphones, which Daiki accepted with a grin that would make the devil blush. In return, Daiki got him… a buttplug with a tiger tail attached.

“Are you fucking serious,” Taiga growled at him even though he knew Daiki was.

“You can take the tail part off if you want to be more secretive about it,” Daiki said, grabbing the plug to demonstrate.

“Get the fuck out of my life,” Taiga told him.

… He didn’t throw it out though.

\--

Daiki was so fast and fluid on the court that Taiga forgot most of the time that he could be touched.

Which was probably why he screamed the loudest when he saw the opposing center’s elbow collide with Daiki’s face. He watched him fall, winced at the sound of his head hitting the court, and before he knew it, he went from being at the opposite end of the court to being immediately at Daiki’s side.

His blood was spilling onto the wood.

“Daiki? Aomine?” Taiga asked, wanting desperately to pull his friend up but knowing it wasn’t a good idea. The team doctor and standby EMTs were there immediately, and he got out of the way just enough for them to stabilize his head, but he refused to go any farther. They pushed but he stayed there.

It wasn’t until he saw the flutter of Daiki’s lashes, hidden somewhere under all the blood from his undoubtedly broken nose that he allowed his teammates to pull him farther back. He could hear the doctor trying to assess him and getting some fragmented responses in return. Daiki seemed unwilling to look up at the bright lights, so someone made sure to give him a towel to hold over his eyes as he was loaded onto a gurney to be taken away.

Taiga followed without a second thought, only pausing at the edge of the court to look over at their coach.

“You’re going to be useless anyways. Go with him,” the coach said, voice kinder than the words suggested. Taiga nodded in thanks and grabbed his phone from the bench. Daiki hadn’t brought his out, having already lost one cellphone to a stray ball, and Taiga couldn’t imagine leaving the gurney for long enough to grab it. 

They let him onto the ambulance after a quick explanation, and he held Daiki’s hand until they got to the hospital. They were brought directly to an ER room, where they waited as a parade of people came in to ask similar questions. Daiki seemed especially annoyed by them constantly asking his name, the date, where he was, what happened. They got his nose to stop bleeding and sent him to the CT scanner. By the time they wheeled him out, Daiki seemed to be fading in and out of consciousness. Taiga felt his heart clench with worry as he tried to figure out what to do.

He needed to let Kuroko and Momoi know, even though they were an ocean away. He definitely needed to let Daiki’s parents know, but when he reached for his phone, he realized that he didn’t even have their numbers. Daiki did call them occasionally, but usually in the privacy of his own room, and Taiga had never spoken to them. He didn’t even know if they were aware their son had a roommate.

That caused another breakdown, guilt and fear weighing on his shoulders. He could barely think clearly enough to call Momoi, and his voice shook as he told her the news. “Could you tell his parents for me too? I-I don’t have their number.”

“Of course,” she replied, trying to keep her tone calm and kind, but Taiga could tell she was frustrated. He would be too if something happened to Daiki and he was stuck in another country.

“I’ll keep texting you updates. They took him to get his face and head scanned. I mean, he’s answering questions just--not like he usually does,” he said, talking way faster than he usually did.

“I’m sure he’ll be okay,” she said. “He’s too stupid to get any dumber.”

They shared a weak, vulnerable laugh before he hung up and waited for Daiki to come back. The team doctor briefly poked his head in to explain that any necessary paperwork was handled, and that Taiga was good to be here. “You’re his emergency contact, after all.”

“Oh,” Taiga said. “I didn’t know that.”

The doctor gave him an odd look, but put a comforting hand on his shoulder and promised to let him know if anything new came up.

Daiki came back soon after, somehow managing to sleep even with his broken nose. “We’re going to splint it for now. The CT should be helpful to whichever surgeon you guys get to fix it,” someone eventually explained, and Taiga nodded, watching as they gave Daiki some pain medication to try and ease the discomfort of the splinting.

Someone else eventually came in to say that his head CT looked fine, the nasal bones were definitely broken but nothing too deep in had gotten injured, and his nose was as fixed as it was going to be for now. “So… are we going home?” Taiga asked. He wasn’t sure whether he’d feel more comfortable secreting Daiki away from everyone or having professional medical staff looking after him.

Luckily, the doctor decided that for him. “We want to keep him in the observation unit overnight, just to follow his mental exam. We’re also not sure what his pain is going to be like when he wakes up, and that’ll probably be easier to manage here.”

“Is it okay for him to be sleeping?” Taiga asked, looking Daiki over. He didn’t look too different from how he usually did when he was sleeping at home, save the bandages around his nose and the bruising that was settling in.

“Yeah. That whole waking them up once an hour thing is actually probably more harmful than helpful. His brain needs sleep to heal,” the doctor explained. “Besides, patients get woken up all the time in the hospital for vitals and meds. He should get sleep while he can.”

Taiga thanked him and waited for transport to take them to Daiki’s observation room, set in a more private corner of the unit. He took advantage of the time to text his dad to see if he could help bring them some things, and he updated both Momoi and Kuroko.

Momoi messaged back that Daiki’s parents were aware and that they wanted to talk to him. “Not immediately, if he’s doing okay, but they want to meet you.”

“Oh,” Taiga said. “Yeah, I want to meet them too.”

By the time everything was sorted, they were moved to their new room, and his dad had brought them changes of clothes and a late night meal for Taiga, he felt completely drained. He felt like he could cry, but the anger was holding him back, the frustration. He hated that the guy who had elbowed Daiki in the face was likely still playing, hated that Daiki wasn’t awake yet, hated that he didn’t know Daiki’s parents or what they thought of him.

If they even knew about him.

Daiki didn’t wake up at all until 2 AM, and the only noises he made then were pain-filled groans. Taiga clutched the arms of the chair he was sitting in while the nurses gave him medication and he fell back asleep. He felt the frustration building up, and he really needed to find someone else to unload it on before Daiki really woke up.

“T-Taiga?” Too late, and he wasn’t even sure how 7AM had happened. He vaguely remembered nurses coming in with more medications, machines going off as they measured Daiki’s vitals, and then… The sun had risen and Taiga hadn’t noticed it.

His name sounded odd, especially with Daiki’s broken nose, but at least it was clearer than some of the slurring he heard yesterday.

“Hey,” he said, instantly on his feet, reaching for Daiki’s hand. _Don’t say it. Don’t scream at him._ This was all stuff they could handle later.

“Do you want to buy a house?”

“What?” Taiga said, all of his anger deflating at once. “I don’t think I heard you right.”

“A house. _House_.” Daiki said, first in Japanese and then in English. “I want to live with you.”

“You already live with me, idiot,” Taiga said, turning Daiki’s head so that he could look right into his eyes. Those dark blue eyes, always so sharp and expressive, were slightly glassy but there was definite recognition when Daiki smiled at him. It was probably just the pain meds.

“No, but,” Daiki stopped a second to blink, as if trying to clear his head. He was even trying to straighten up in bed, and Taiga had to push him back against it to make sure he didn’t pull at any IVs. “I want to live with you _forever_.”

Taiga had to force down his heart, which had just jumped into his throat.

“And I want a basketball court in our backyard. A full-sized one.”

He snorted. “Well, duh.”

That made Daiki focus on him again, tired but with so much fondness in his eyes that Taiga couldn’t help blushing. “Satsuki told me I’d never find someone who’d agree to that. Ha! Showed her.”

Taiga couldn’t help but laugh at how triumphant Daiki sounded. Determined to have the last laugh, even when he was high on drugs. His smile faded away when he realized that was exactly it. _He doesn’t mean any of this._ “You haven’t even told your parents about me,” he whispered, not expecting Daiki to hear it or understand.

Daiki had always had good senses though. “No, I told them about you. They might think you’re a girl, but they know about you.”

He felt his jaw drop. “What do you mean they think I’m a girl?” he shouted before realizing that he probably shouldn’t be raising his voice to an invalid.

“Well,” Daiki said, settling in as if he were getting ready to tell some great story. Taiga certainly couldn’t wait to hear it. “I told them there was someone in America who I was talking to a lot, and they knew about the pictures. I talked a lot about how great your food was and how clean you kept the apartment and you fucking do my laundry for me, man.”

The blush was coming back. Taiga covered his face with his hand. “None of that proves anything. Unless you told them how great my boobs were, I don’t see why they assumed I was a girl.”

“Oh, that might be because I told them I was going to America for you.” Taiga inhaled sharply. They had never really talked about what had brought Daiki here. While Taiga was a familiar face and someone else who knew Japanese, and therefore an easy teammate to be drafted with, that wasn’t really joining the NBA for _Taiga_. More for convenience. He had always thought it was because Daiki had been bored, and this was his last chance to keep loving basketball. “They asked me to find someone else. Kept bugging me about girls they could set me up with. But that’s silly.”

He was falling asleep again, Taiga realized. Resting his hand on Daiki’s head, he ran his fingers through his hair, pleased when Daiki made a happy rumbling sound. _Like a huge, purring cat_ , Taiga thought. “Why is that silly?” he couldn’t help but ask, as Daiki’s eyelids slowly drifted closed again.

“Because there’s only one of you,” Daiki said before he was completely out again.

Taiga stood there, wondering what to do with everything Daiki had just said. He wanted to believe it, but he couldn’t hold it against him. Not when he was like this. After a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure the curtains were pulled over the windows and doors, Taiga looked back at Daiki’s familiar sleeping face and leaned in to press a kiss to his temple. 

“I’m pretty sure I love you,” he said, uncertain as to whether he wanted Daiki to remember those words when he woke up or not.

He didn’t, Taiga knew for sure, once it was noon and Daiki woke up for good. He had been peaceful enough that they had gone down on his pain medication and were giving him something less sedating. By the time lunch rolled around, he was completely awake and basically back to himself. “Light still hurts,” he said. “Also my voice sounds dumb.”

“That’s what you get for being elbowed in the face,” Taiga taunted him. “I told you that you had a punchable face.”

“He didn’t fucking punch me,” Daiki snapped back, staring in horror at the hospital food. “Can’t we throw this away and you can make me croquettes instead?”

“With what fucking kitchen, idiot?” Taiga replied, barely even phased by the request.

He updated Kuroko and Momoi, his dad and their head coach. The doctor was getting ready to discharge them with some ibuprofen and a recommendation for a good reconstructive surgeon. “My beautiful nose,” Daiki mourned.

“I think he can probably give you a better one,” Taiga said, waving the surgeon’s business card around. Daiki jabbed his elbow into Taiga’s ribs.

There was no talk of love or houses or Daiki’s parents. Taiga did bring up that last one, because he really needed to meet them. “I didn’t even have their number so I could tell them what happened!” he snapped once they were home and Daiki was situated on the couch, ibuprofen and water in arm’s reach. Despite his earlier objections, Taiga had started making croquettes, figuring Daiki was lucky they had the ingredients for them. “And why am I your emergency contact and not them?”

“Well, you understand English and oh yeah, _live on this continent_ while they don’t!” Daiki shouted back. Even he sounded apologetic when he said, “But I should have given you their number at least. It’s just--complicated.”

Taiga’s ears perked up. “Complicated?”

“They may have certain ideas about you,” Daiki admitted. _Ideas like I’m a girl?_ Taiga thought. “The Aomine family may think you’re one of those returnee seductresses who has lured their favorite son into a life of Western sin.”

Taiga spluttered. That was actually worse than what high-on-morphine Daiki had said. “ _What?_ Also, what the fuck have you been watching on Netflix?”

“I think they’d feel better about it if I’d just marry ‘Kagami-chan,’” he admitted.

“That isn’t making things better.”

“We’ll call them later and clear it up,” Daiki said, waving a hand over his shoulder. Taiga would have kept pursuing it if only Daiki didn’t sound so tired. He focused instead on finishing up the croquettes and frying them before serving them with rice. “You made _tamago_ too,” Daiki said, and the smile on his face was a lot more subtle than the ones he was known for, but Taiga liked it for its rarity.

“Well, Momoi did go through all the trouble of sending the pan over,” was all he would say in response.

“I can’t wait to fucking shower, finally.” Daiki was almost done with his two bowls of rice, and Taiga was finishing up his fifth.

“Yup, just let me clean up and then I’ll help you take a bath,” he said, grabbing for the last croquette he had fried.

Daiki’s chopsticks met him halfway. “What?”

Well, this was a turn of events. “You aren’t showering with that splint on and while you still might be dizzy. Falling would be _bad_ ,” he said, emphasizing the last word as if Daiki was a child.

He growled in a very non-childlike manner. “I can take a bath by myself then!”

“You’re still falling asleep everywhere!”

“Do you know how humiliating this sounds?”

“What, are you fucking afraid of the dick monster showing up and giving you the gay?”

There was a long moment of silence after that, their chopsticks still crossed and hovering over the last croquette, before Daiki snorted and broke into laughter. “Oh, that hurts my nose,” he said but seemed incapable of stopping. “Where the fuck did you get that idea?”

Mostly from his own anxiety at seeing and touching Daiki’s naked body. “Well, what else would it be?” he growled, trying to duck his head so that Daiki couldn’t see how flustered he was.

“Imagine me giving you a sponge bath. Don’t you think that’d be a little embarrassing?” Daiki asked. Taiga thought about it, and while the thought of Daiki and a bath could definitely be taken one way, with a broken nose and a headache that wouldn’t stop, it’d probably just be terrible.

“Point taken. I’m still giving you a bath,” Taiga said. There was no response from the other man, and Taiga figured that meant he had won the argument.

The argument but not the war, he realized, standing next to their tub drenched from head to toe. Daiki was already lying in the tub, a satisfied smirk on his face. “If I have to be naked, you have to be naked too.”

“You can put on some fucking underwear if you’re that insecure about it,” Taiga growled, although he had refused to look anywhere down there since the man had casually stripped everything off to get into the bath. They had only gotten as far as filling the tub before Daiki had taken one of his stupidly long legs and kicked water all over Taiga _and_ the bathroom floor. He hadn’t stopped until everything was wetter than he was. “You’re going to clean this up.”

“You won’t even let me take a bath by myself--as if you’re going to make me mop the bathroom,” Daiki retorted, eyes closed and relaxed in his confidence. Taiga cursed him and then cursed himself. “Get naked Taiga. Don’t let the extra large tub go to waste.”

“Fine!” Taiga shouted, frustrated enough to whip off his waterlogged shirt and pull his boxers and shorts off in one quick motion. He put a foot into the tub to kick Daiki’s legs out of the way so that he could settle on the other end. The tub was big enough that it could fit two oversized basketball players without their legs needing to touch as long as they sat with their knees up. Daiki had chosen instead to spread out completely, his left leg resting on the edge right next to Taiga. “Happy now?” he asked, trying desperately not to blush.

“I’m bigger,” Daiki said, nodding his contentment. “Unless you’re a grower.”

“Why the fuck did I agree to live with you,” Taiga said, trying to cover his embarrassment up by reaching for the soap. He had also grabbed a bath sponge that someone, probably Momoi but possibly Kise, had given them at some point. It was his saving grace, as it allowed him to soap Daiki up without also directly feeling him up.

Doing this while _in_ the tub with Daiki proved to be a lot more awkward than being out of the tub would have been. Legs and feet were fine, but to get to Daiki’s arms and chest, he basically had to sit between his thighs. It was inevitable that there was a lot more touching than Taiga had initially anticipated, and he carefully avoided looking at Daiki’s face, not wanting to give him a chance to read Taiga’s anxious eyes.

“Hey, does this mean you’re going to help me jerk off too?”

Taiga froze, the sponge resting on Daiki’s chest and his other hand on the edge of the tub behind Daiki’s shoulder to keep him balanced. The other man was moving around a lot, grabbing something, but all Taiga could feel was panic. “What?”

“Well, I’m probably a lot more likely to get dizzy from getting off too hard versus sitting in a steamy bathroom,” Daiki explained, as if it should be obvious.

He hadn’t thought of a response to that before he suddenly felt Daiki’s hand on his hair, and with it, something cold. “What are you--”

“Shampooing you. Your hair is conveniently already wet,” Daiki said. Taiga had to close his eyes to fend off soap suds as Daiki ran his hands through his hair. It was nice, if a bit rough. Exactly like Daiki. “Dunk.”

Taiga sat back to make sure he wasn’t dunking his head in too close to Daiki’s dick and leaned forward to wash the shampoo out. “Next time, warn me!” he scowled, brushing his hair out of his face as he straightened up.

“I’m just being efficient! You still have to mop the bathroom when we’re done,” Daiki reminded him. Taiga groaned, and there must have been enough genuine despair in that Daiki was well-behaved for the rest of the bath.

Except for when Taiga left him to clean his own junk. “That’s a no on the mutual masturbation then?” The man actually managed to sound _disappointed_.

“Oh, it’s mutual? You didn’t say that at first,” Taiga said, pretending to think about it. “You know what? My answer is _still no_ , you perverted bastard.” He got out of the tub first, wanting to at least mop up enough water that it wouldn’t be dangerous for Daiki to get to the door.

By the time everything was cleaned up, Taiga was exhausted. Worrying all through last night, catering to Daiki’s whims the entire day had left him desiring nothing more than hours of uninterrupted sleep. He collapsed onto his bed next to Daiki, who had already settled in with a tablet to watch what looked like highlights from yesterday’s game.

“The screen light hurts,” Daiki complained, turning the tablet off after a few minutes. Taiga only had enough energy to turn his head to look at him.

“The doctor said you shouldn’t do anything that might make the concussion worse,” he reminded him.

“Yeah, but it seems like that includes _everything_ except sitting by myself in a dark room,” Daiki grumbled.

“He didn’t specifically say you couldn’t jerk off,” Taiga offered, already drifting to sleep.

“True,” Daiki agreed. Taiga could feel the covers being moved around, and he felt them being carefully draped over him and tucked into one side. The other side was occupied by Daiki, who had turned to wrap himself around Taiga like usual. “Sorry I was a jerk about the bath,” he whispered.

“You can make it up to me by never getting hurt again,” Taiga mumbled in reply. He thought he felt something brush his temple before sleep won out.

\--

It took longer for the concussion to go away than it did to fix Daiki’s nose. Exiled from the court until he could handle standing under the lights without getting a headache, he got his surgery, worked out as if it were the off season, and reminded Taiga not to let this keep them from the playoffs. “I won’t,” Taiga growled, as if he needed to be reminded.

Everyone on the team must have agreed, because even Taiga was surprised by the ferocity with which they played the following games. Daiki might not have been there, but wherever he turned, there was someone to pass to, someone to throw the ball his way, someone to help him defend. They all seemed to rally around him, and Taiga had been grateful, until he realized why.

It wasn’t even a bad foul. He had been defending someone who was a bit too eager to shoot, and they had tried to push Taiga back to do it. He fell on his ass, which hurt, but he was up immediately. Rather than complaining to the refs, he had had to pull one of his teammates away from the player who fouled him.

“What the hell?” he asked.

“Someone’s gotta do it,” the other replied. “And Daiki ain’t here.”

Taiga was well aware that Daiki tended to glare down people who fouled him, but he had never actually threatened anyone. He brought it up again in the team locker room after the game, which had ended in a victory for them. “Seriously, what was that all about?”

He was surprised to see the guilt on some of his teammates’ faces. “We just feel bad about what happened to Daiki.”

“It was an accident,” Taiga objected, because as much as he still hated that player’s guts, he had accepted that it wasn’t on purpose.

“The way you screamed when you saw him go down,” one of them said. “I’ll never forget that.”

Taiga didn’t even remember screaming. He went home that night, ate the takeout that Daiki had ordered in advance as a way to celebrate their win, and asked, “Do you want to watch that game again?”

“The one where I got elbowed in the face?” Daiki asked. “The screen still hurts a little. Why?”

“Ah, I just realized I don’t know how it ended,” Taiga said, trying to cover it up. It was a stupid question anyway. Why would Daiki want to watch himself get injured?

But as always, Daiki took it in stride, pausing their Netflix show to navigate to NBA League Pass and pull up the replay. “I got hit somewhere in the third quarter, right?” He was already fastforwarding.

Taiga brought his legs up onto the couch, crossing them underneath him as he waited. He had a feeling this was a bad idea, but he couldn’t resist watching the impending violence. When it happened, it was almost too sudden. He was watching Daiki as they reset for defense when his head suddenly snapped back and he started to fall.

There was commotion in the crowd, the announcers belatedly realizing what had happened, the referee’s whistle going off. Over all of those noises was the sound of a single, heartrending scream. Taiga watched as his past self ran over to Daiki. There were multiple shots of the hit from different camera angles, now closer up. One of them had caught his face, and rather than looking shocked or angry, he realized he had looked _scared_.

The television screen went black, and Taiga reeled back in surprise. “That was you screaming,” Daiki said, brow furrowed and mouth turned down.

“Yeah, the guys mentioned that,” he mumbled.

An arm was thrown around his shoulder, and Taiga felt himself dragged into an awkward side hug. “You Bakagami,” Daiki said, but his voice was quiet and kind. Taiga let his head rest on Daiki’s shoulder and forced himself to forget how scared he had looked. “Well, now everyone who watches basketball is going to know how much you love me.”

“Yeah, I win at gay chicken,” Taiga scoffed.

It was a joke, but everyday, there was something to remind Taiga of how true it was. Their teammates’ concern was one thing, they had already gotten the wrong idea. His dad treating them to brunch to make sure they were doing okay was sort of acceptable. Alex calling to ask Daiki if they wanted to share injury stories wasn’t completely out of character. He drew the line when his old UCLA teammates started calling.

“That’s the guy that was on your phone, right?” Taiga glared over at Daiki, annoyed that Daiki could cause him this much trouble without even trying.

But the absolute most bizarre reminder came in the form of Daiki’s parents, who they eventually video called once Daiki could stand to look at a screen without getting a headache. Kuroko was kind enough to facilitate from the other side, bringing his laptop over to the Aomine household to be used for the call. Taiga was relieved to see him on screen, sitting in the corner next to Daiki’s mom and dad. Even Momoi had joined them, sitting next to Kuroko.

“Hey Mom, Dad,” Daiki said, because of course he managed to irreverent to his own parents. “This is Kagami Taiga, my roommate and teammate.”

“You idiot, bow your head and apologize to your parents for making them worry!” Taiga said, putting one hand on Daiki’s head to force it down.

“Is that how you treat an invalid in front of his own family?” Daiki snapped back.

“I think they already have a bad enough impression of me!” Taiga hissed.

“We don’t, actually,” Daiki’s dad spoke up, interrupting their squabble. “I think we misunderstood the situation.”

 _Like how I’m not a girl?_ Taiga thought to himself. “Daiki didn’t bother to explain before he left,” Daiki’s mom said in a measured tone, but it was heavy with disapproval. Taiga could see Daiki flinch out of the corner of one eye. “We would love to get to know you more, Taiga-kun. Thank you for taking care of our son.”

“O-Oh! Y-Yes. It’s no bother,” he said, struggling to remember his _keigo_. Judging by the way Daiki was laughing, he wasn’t succeeding.

“Honestly, Dai-chan! You should have just told your parents that you were following your heart,” Momoi teased. Taiga could feel himself getting faint and hoped he didn’t look too pale. He understood that Daiki’s friends liked making fun of them, but _in front of his parents_?

“I did!” Daiki objected. Taiga gawked at him. “They thought I was being seduced by an immoral returnee!”

“Well, they weren’t completely wrong,” Kuroko said.

“Hey!”

“But Kagami-kun is still better than you deserve,” Kuroko finished.

“It took us a while to accept it, but we trust Satsuki-chan and Kuroko-kun’s judgment,” Daiki’s dad admitted. “And we can see how much Taiga-kun cares about you.”

All of the blood that had left his face returned to it in a rush. Turning his head to yell at Daiki, Taiga was surprised to see that his ears were just as red. “I’m sorry for not explaining myself better. I didn’t have much time to prepare,” Daiki apologized. He even inclined his head a little as he said it.

“Now that we’ve made amends, why don’t you two tell us about how life in America has been?” Daiki’s mom suggested.

It felt surreal, sitting there and talking to Daiki’s parents about the NBA draft, the Summer League, and their auspicious start to the season. Daiki’s mother worried over two young men living by themselves, which Daiki waved off saying that Taiga could and did handle everything.

“You’re rich enough that you could hire someone for all that,” Momoi pointed out. Taiga straightened up in his seat. For some reason, he had never thought about that.

“It’s not like Taiga is that busy. Besides, we do things differently,” Daiki brushed off. At first, Taiga was confused before he realized that _oh yeah_ , they only slept in one bed and constantly wore each other’s clothes, and it would probably be awkward to explain to someone else why that was.

Hurriedly looking down at his shirt to make sure that he was wearing his own, or at least one that wasn’t obviously Daiki’s, he breathed a sigh of relief at the realization that he had on just another black shirt. The basketball shorts were probably Daiki’s, because he couldn’t remember buying a pair in this color, but no one would know that.

Except maybe Kuroko, who was eyeing them like he knew exactly what Daiki meant by _doing things differently_.

Daiki’s parents were also interested to know more about Taiga, and he struggled to speak politely through the pressure. Luckily, Kuroko came to his aid multiple times to explain things in his place, and even Momoi had a few nice things to say about him. By the time the conversation had wound down, three hours had passed, and Taiga was trying not to look eager to hang up and start dinner.

“We should go,” Daiki suddenly interrupted. “I’m hungry.” He gave Taiga a sidelong glance that said he knew Taiga was the one starving. Taiga nudged him with his foot under the table in thanks.

“So rude, Dai-chan! Are you going to make Taiga cook again?” Momoi scolded.

“Oh, that’s right. Thanks for the _tamago_ pan. This one asks for it a lot,” Taiga complained, poking Daiki in the side. 

“That’s for not letting me have banana milk,” Daiki grumbled.

“I _limit_ your banana milk to a reasonable amount!” Taiga snapped. “We went over this during your last nutritionist meeting!”

For some reason, that exchange caused Daiki’s mom to almost glow with satisfaction. “I know Daiki always said all he cared about was that his future spouse had big boobs, but I’m glad he’s with someone who is willing to take care of him, even when he’s misbehaving. It’s all our fault, I’m afraid.”

Taiga shot Daiki a look that said, _You really told your mom that?_ before turning back to the screen. “Um,” he started, trying to figure out the best way to explain that they weren’t dating.

“Kagamin is probably the only person in the world who would agree to having a basketball court in the backyard,” Momoi threw in. “I guess you found someone after all, Dai-chan!”

That reminded Taiga of the conversation they’d had when Daiki had been on pain medication. Lost in thought, Taiga didn’t have time to object when Daiki abruptly said their goodbyes and hung up, agreeing to call them more and to give them Taiga’s phone number. “W-wait!” he shouted as Daiki shut off the laptop. “A-are you really okay with that?”

“With what?” Daiki asked, poking at one of his ears.

“Your parents think you’re gay and living with an immoral returnee,” Taiga said, amazed he had to spell it out. “Isn’t that… awkward for you?”

“Nah,” Daiki said. “It explains why I’m living with you, and that’s what matters.”

Taiga opened his mouth to say that there were plenty of other, more socially acceptable, reasons for them to be living together, but Daiki had already wandered off toward the kitchen. “You aren’t drinking anymore banana milk before dinner!” he shouted instead.

“Oh yeah, what are you going to do about it?” Daiki threw back.

“Not cook,” Taiga replied. Daiki turned around, one hand still on the refrigerator door.

“You wouldn’t. There’s nothing for you to eat otherwise,” Daiki scowled.

“Actually, I ate on the way home from practice already,” Taiga replied. Eyes widening, Daiki swore but retreated from the refrigerator without his banana milk.

“Being separated during the day sucks,” he grouched. “I want to play basketball again.”

“Let’s start with getting you cleared for practice,” Taiga said, ruffling Daiki’s hair like the overgrown child he was.

For dessert, Taiga let him have a carton of banana milk.

\--

He had a plan, and it was a really terrible plan, but he figured he was running out of options. Daiki was playing again, even though the coach was limiting how long he could be on the court, which meant they were back to being inseparable. Daiki’s room had been abandoned, the two of them sleeping together every night, and Taiga’s closet was now an inseparable mess of both of their clothes.

Taiga wasn’t sure he could remember the last time Daiki declared he was going to jerk off.

On the road, it was worse. They had seats next to each other in the bus and on the plane. They roomed together, and even when they were invited to go out with their teammates, it was usually assumed that if one of them said no, the other wasn’t coming.

He was starting to worry that the head injury had caused some permanent personality change in Daiki. While he still perved over gravure idols and Hollywood actresses, he had become even more tactile with Taiga. When they were next to each other, Daiki usually had an arm over his shoulder or would press their legs together. The best and worst thing was that Daiki had taken to kissing Taiga’s temple when they won, an acceptable expression of masculine friendship in the face of victory.

Except it made him think of when he had kissed Daiki’s temple in the hospital, which had most definitely not had anything to do with basketball. Also, they were winning a lot.

So Taiga was desperate, and he had concocted a really terrible plan as a result. He wanted to run it by his usual disaster meter, Kuroko, but he figured this was a bit too TMI even for his best friend. The only other option was Daiki, but he was part of the plan, and so asking him would just be going ahead with the plan.

Taiga, deciding to be true to himself, rushed into it without thinking. He tried very hard not to think about it at all as he asked, “Can I suck your dick?”

Daiki had been in the middle of watching something--Taiga had been too anxious to care--and moved to calmly turn the television off. He turned and they made eye contact. “What the actual _fuck_?”

At least he seemed surprised rather than angry, Taiga thought. “You’re always asking about my sex life! Or offering to be part of it! Well, now I’m generously giving you that chance!” he shouted, hoping that if he was loud enough that it would drown out his embarrassment. “I mean. If you want it.”

He got a considering look as a reply. “Are you that sexually frustrated?”

“Whose fault do you think that is?” Taiga snapped. “Everyone thinks we’re together! I’m not going to be the cheater in this relationship!”

Daiki raised an eyebrow. “You want to suck cock that badly?”

“W-well. I mean. I sort of want to. Practice,” he said, dropping to a whisper by the end. “And it would feel dumb to do that on a dildo, so…”

There was a considering hum before, “Okay.” Taiga almost couldn’t believe his ears. His heart started racing. Daiki had always seemed like a super sex positive kind of guy, which was what he had been banking on for this plan, but it had still been a long shot. The guy was straight after all. Then again, receiving a blow job probably didn’t register as a very gay thing to do, even if the person giving it was a guy. “One condition.”

If possible, his heart rate jumped even higher. “What condition?” he asked, suspicion evident in his voice. Was he going to demand they do it in the dark where Daiki wouldn’t be able to see it was a guy? Would he want straight porn playing in the background?

“You have to come too.”

That wasn’t what Taiga was expecting. He pulled the top of his t-shirt up to cover his blush. “What? Why?”

Daiki shrugged. “Technically, you’re still having sex with me, and I won’t have you spreading rumors that you weren’t able to orgasm while doing it with me.”

“Your ego is out of control,” Taiga groaned. “F-fine. You don’t care how, right?”

“How what?” Daiki asked, looking genuinely confused as opposed to teasing.

“How I get myself to… you know.” Ah, there was that smirk he was expecting.

“You can’t even say it? I’m impressed you managed to ask me in the first place,” Daiki taunted. Taiga picked up the nearest thing, a pillow, and threw it at Daiki’s face. He caught it, of course. “When did you want to do this?”

“Well,” Taiga said, “now?”

He had picked today specifically to bring it up. Practice had been light earlier this morning, and tomorrow would be a rest day. The day after that was a home game, so they wouldn’t be stuck on the road together for other people to dissect the tension between them if it came about. It seemed like the perfect time.

If Daiki was surprised by the suddenness, he didn’t show it. “Sure,” he said, standing up to pull off his sweatpants. As per his preference, he was already shirtless.

“Wait, not here!” Taiga said. “Let’s use your room.”

“I guess it needs to serve some purpose,” Daiki agreed, blissfully refraining from stripping until they got there.

“D-Do you want to. Look at some porn or. Something before we start? To get you. Ready?” Taiga couldn’t even look at Daiki’s back as he said that. Partly because it was an unfairly attractive back.

“Nah, it’s been a while,” Daiki brushed off, and Taiga glanced over as Daiki opened the door, just to see that he already had one hand down his front and he was moving his arm in an unmistakable motion.

“You are _shameless_ ,” Taiga accused.

“That’s why you asked me, right?” Daiki shot back, even having the gall to wink at him.

That actually reminded him. “Um, I’ll be right back. You can… get ready,” he mumbled before walking as quickly as he could to his room.

There was probably a line he was crossing, using something Daiki had given him to get himself off while he was blowing the guy, but considering how limitlessly open-minded Daiki seemed to be, Taiga figured he could get away with it. Making sure he detached the tail from the buttplug, he grabbed some lube and opened himself up. He hadn’t had a chance to use the plug before, but it wasn’t as thick as the dildo, so Taiga figured he could be a little quick with the preparation.

It made putting it in more satisfying, he thought, unable to help a moan as he felt the stretch. He was fully hard by the time it was completely inserted, and it took him a moment to put his shorts back on. He left his shirt off and tried walking in front of the mirror. The movement made him whimper, and he cursed his inability to be subtle. Daiki would probably notice.

Well, at least he’d be sure Taiga was keeping his end of the bargain.

The walk back to Daiki’s old room felt like it took forever, the new sensation of the plug inside him and the friction of the shorts against his erection were amazing, made even better by the anticipation of getting to finally have someone’s dick in his mouth. Of having _Daiki’s_ dick in his mouth, although he tried not to focus on that too much. He didn’t want to override all of his memories of Daiki, both the annoyances and the kind, quiet moments, with that of this guy who was okay with Taiga sucking him off once.

He slowly opened the door and tried not to swallow his tongue at the sight that greeted him, because he knew Daiki would try to provoke him. Not that it took much, as Daiki was just seated on the edge of his bed, completely naked and with a hand loosely curled around his erection. Which, now that Taiga was looking at it, was bigger than his--and not circumcised. “Huh,” he said, incapable of more intelligent commentary.

“What were you doing?” Daiki asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously. “I heard noises.”

“Yeah, I’m a loud son of a bitch. Hope you don’t mind,” Taiga said. He didn’t know if there was a proper way to start sucking someone’s dick, so he decided to just take a few steps and then drop to his knees in front of Daiki.

“Um. Can I?” he asked, gesturing vaguely at Daiki’s crotch.

The other man laughed. “Yeah, it’s all yours. But don’t you dare get your teeth anywhere close--”

“I figured that part out, thanks!” Taiga snapped. Reaching for it, he couldn’t help but be interested in the intact foreskin. The usual motions of jerking someone off moved it back and forth, which made Daiki inhale sharply. He eventually tried retracting it all the way back to expose the head, which was where he figured it’d be easiest to start.

Wrapping his mouth just around the tip, Taiga circled his tongue around it. A small motion of Daiki’s hips drove it in deeper than expected, and he remembered to use his hands to hold them down. He didn’t think he had much of a gag reflex--probably a result of eating 10 burgers in 5 minutes--but he didn’t want to risk it either.

He withdrew after a moment, not quite ready to try and take it deeper. Instead, he let his tongue explore the length of it, even dipping between the head and the foreskin, which Daiki seemed to like from the groan he made. Figuring Daiki could behave while he was just using his tongue, Taiga moved one of his hands off of Daiki’s hips to instead brush against his abs, which Taiga had wanted to touch since that first shirtless photo Daiki had sent to him, and over those deep cut V lines that always showed a little over Daiki’s boxers. He then brought it down to tease the base of Daiki’s cock and his balls.

Sliding his mouth down Daiki’s length, Taiga stopped when he felt a hand resting lightly on his head. “Can I?” Daiki asked, voice quiet but rough. Taiga looked up at him as he sucked at the base of his cock, nodding. “Fuck,” Daiki said with obvious pleasure, letting his hand sink through Taiga’s hair.

Feeling more confident now, Taiga moved one arm back to hold Daiki’s hips down while the other hand pulled his foreskin back. He could hear Daiki’s breath getting louder with anticipation, and he clenched around his plug to let his own arousal build. Taiga hadn’t decided yet how exactly he was planning on coming, what Daiki would be okay with seeing, but he figured it would help to be turned on through this whole process. Which was going to be easy, considering how much he was enjoying himself. Even the involuntary clench of Daiki’s hand in his hair was enough to keep him hard.

Fitting his mouth over the head again, Taiga tried to think about everything he had researched about deep throating. He wasn’t going to be particularly crushed if he failed, but he absolutely wanted to try, so he relaxed his throat as much as possible, trying to take as much of the length in as he could. Taiga was just as surprised as Daiki when his lips met the base.

“Shit, fuck, this can’t be your first time,” Daiki mumbled. Taiga couldn’t help his smile, although he realized at this point that he wasn’t sure what to do. Slowly pulling back off, he realized he could feel Daiki’s thighs trembling under his arm.

“Do you want to--” he had to pause to clear his throat so his voice would return to some semblance of normal. “Do you want to try. Uh. Thrusting?”

Daiki gave him an incredulous look. “Are you asking me to fuck your mouth?”

Taiga wouldn’t have been able to hold back this blush if he tried. “I guess? I’m not sure what else I’m supposed to do here.”

“You’re doing fine,” Daiki quickly reassured him, which actually did encourage him. “Tell me if you can’t handle it, okay?”

“Sure,” Taiga said, “but I don’t think I really have a gag reflex.”

Some kind of strangled noise came from Daiki’s throat, but Taiga was too focused to ask what that was about. He relaxed his throat again and slowly took in the entire length of Daiki’s cock before pulling back. After a few more passes, he felt more confident that he could handle it at a higher speed and lifted his arm off of Daiki’s hips. He held a thumbs up to signal that Daiki should go for it and waited.

The hesitation of Daiki’s hand in his hair was almost endearing, and he appreciated that the other held himself back enough to start with small movements. Those seemed perfectly manageable, and Taiga could see the appeal at being on the receiving end. There was a stretch and a fullness, and more than that, the feeling of accomplishment. Especially when Daiki started to feel more confident, going from leaning back to bending forward, giving him a better angle to make larger movements. His hand tightened on Taiga’s hair and he started moving faster.

Knowing he had liked it a little rougher when he was alone with the dildo, Taiga placed his hands behind Daiki’s back and pushed him forward. Daiki’s hips stuttered in uncertainty before the faster thrusts were replaced by slower, deeper thrusts. Ones that made it hard to breathe, and while he didn’t gag, he felt a little bit like he was choking.

Which he apparently liked, as he started to make stupid noises every time he felt Daiki hit the back of his throat. The vibrations must have been good for Daiki too, because the continuous quiet groans he had been giving off were interrupted by a gasp, and his rhythm was starting to become unsteady. “You need to let me go if you don’t want me coming down your throat,” Daiki hissed.

Taiga responded by pulling Daiki even closer, which was apparently the final switch that needed to be flipped before Daiki was outright swearing, grabbing Taiga’s head with both hands and fucking into his mouth hard and fast. Between the sound of Daiki’s cock going in and out of his mouth and his own pleased moans getting louder and louder, Taiga almost missed the deep groan of satisfaction Daiki made before Taiga felt liquid flood down his throat and into his mouth.

He tried to swallow as much as he could before Daiki withdrew completely, but he realized the entire process had left him a mess of saliva and cum. “Sorry, I’m a mess,” he said, trying to wipe the mess of fluids off his chin. He winced. His voice sounded completely off. He was really glad it was going to be a rest day tomorrow.

“Fuck, don’t apologize,” Daiki said, grabbing one of Taiga’s arms to pull him onto the bed. The sudden motion made the plug shift and he couldn’t hold back a particularly loud groan. It was quickly swallowed by Daiki’s mouth, and Taiga blinked in surprise at the realization that Daiki was kissing him, even with the mess.

He wasn’t sure whether they should be kissing. It didn’t seem like something Daiki would enjoy as a straight guy, but Daiki’s mouth and tongue and teeth were insistent, so Taiga gave into it. It had been a long time since he had been kissed, and that last time hadn’t been as tender as this. Still forceful, because Daiki, but there was praise and care in this kiss, highlighted by how it ended in a series of small meetings of their lips. Almost chaste except for how it filled Taiga with warmth.

“What was that moan about?” Daiki asked when he pulled away.

Taiga blushed. He knew Daiki would notice. “Uh. You said you wanted me to come,” he said, almost accusing in his defensiveness. “So I.” He couldn’t say it, so he just sort of looked down.

He wasn’t expecting Daiki to just shove his hand down the back of Taiga’s shorts, running his hand along the crease until he felt the base of the plug. “Fuck, that’s hot,” Daiki growled, and then they were back to kissing.

“Um, do you mind,” Taiga said between kisses. “If I. Touch myself?”

“Of course not, you fucking idiot,” Daiki said, pulling Taiga’s shorts down enough to expose his erection and the plug.

Taiga focused on stroking himself, unsure of how Daiki would react if he touched the plug. He quickly realized he didn’t have anything to worry about, as Daiki reached for the plug himself and started to move it in and out of him. “Okay?” Daiki asked, shifting to kiss down Taiga’s neck and chest.

His only response was a shout followed by a prolonged moan. “Fuck, Daiki,” he moaned, and a tiny part of his brain that was still managing to hold onto reason hoped he didn’t sound like he meant that name as much as he did. “Daiki, more.”

“Plug only goes so deep,” Daiki teased. “You really want more?”

“Yeah,” he just managed to pant out. He screamed when Daiki suddenly pulled the plug out, and he whimpered as he realized he was just on the edge of finishing. It didn’t quite feel like it was enough, but Taiga would have accepted anything at that moment.

He didn’t expect Daiki to replace the plug with three of his own fingers, which immediately started stretching and _searching_.

“Daiki!” he shouted, caught off guard by his own orgasm. Everything seemed to overload, and for a moment, he couldn’t differentiate where the pleasure was coming from. It took him a second to realize what Daiki was doing, but once the initial confusion wore off, Taiga scrambled to get Daiki’s fingers off his prostate. “Fuck, that’s sensitive,” he whimpered.

“Ah, sorry,” Daiki said, sounding genuine. He apologized with slow kisses, drawing Taiga in close. It was weird to feel his own cum coating Daiki’s chest and abdomen, and they really needed to clean up, but--

Taiga liked this. Rather, this was everything he wanted. Daiki, affectionate and adoring after sex, as if they were really in a relationship. It _hurt_ to think this wasn’t real, that Daiki was just so good and considerate in bed that he would go so far as to kiss Taiga, help him get off.

“Thank you,” he said after they had gotten too tired to keep kissing. Daiki pulled insistently until he got Taiga’s shorts off completely so he could use it to wipe them both down. “T-That was. The most I’ve ever. Um. Done with a guy. So. Thanks.”

Daiki just gave a wordless hum of contentment, wrapping himself around Taiga again like they were going to sleep. That hurt too, that this felt so familiar. He wanted this so much. Reaching a hand out to massage one of Daiki’s temples, he mumbled, “I give up.”

Blue eyes that had been happily closed suddenly shot open. “What?”

“The whole… gay chicken thing. I give up,” Taiga said. “I-I want this. Someone who will make me sleep whether I like it or not, who I can steal clothes from, who I can take baths with. I want all of that to be real, and i-it won’t be if we keep doing this.”

He cleared his throat. It still sounded messed up. “I know you’re the straightest guy alive, but you’ve been so understanding. You told me once that it didn’t matter if I were gay, since I wasn’t asking you to fuck me, but. Um.

“... I like you now, and you should probably know that.” Taiga couldn’t bear to look at Daiki’s eyes. He had evaded judgment and alienation for so long, but this was surely the last straw. The last time he’d ever be this close to this ridiculous jackass who had decided to make himself a part of Taiga’s life. He closed his eyes and readied for the harsh words.

“How fucking stupid can you be?” Daiki drawled, in such a familiar way that Taiga couldn’t help the objection that sprang to his throat. “We were never playing--what did you call it? Gay chicken? You’re just an idiot.”

“Wait, what?” Taiga asked, eyes widening.

“The photos were genuinely just to annoy you,” Daiki started, and Taiga scoffed because _Daiki_. “But then we talked and you reminded me of how I felt when we played basketball together. You _worried_ about me and that pamphlet you dropped in there. It made me feel like there was something for me to do. Something I had to do.”

Daiki’s arms tightened around him, and Taiga realized suddenly that he was being _held_ , not just cuddled against. “Honestly, what kind of fucking idiot believes that someone learns English and joins the NBA draft just because?” Daiki snapped. “I figured you knew how I felt and were being nice about it! Which didn’t stop me from making everyone think you were mine, because I wasn’t about to let some random guy get you either.”

Taiga froze. “You’re such a bastard. This was all on purpose?”

“I thought that was obvious! It was obvious to everyone else!”

“Why couldn’t you tell me if it was that obvious?”

“Because I underestimated how dumb you were! Didn’t you just hear me say that?”

Taiga growled but even he realized that maybe he had missed some obvious clues there.

“Yeah, obvious clues like _me agreeing to a blowjob and then fucking you with a plug until you came_ ,” Daiki snapped. “Wait, are you still a virgin because all of those guys tried to hint that they wanted your ass and you just didn’t get it?”

“No!” Taiga objected. At least, probably not. “I mean, so. Are you still interested?”

“In what?” Daiki growled.

“In… me? Dating. Me?” he stumbled over the words.

“Taiga, I’m going to fucking buy a house and live with you for the rest of our lives, making sure we both have at least one orgasm a day,” Daiki said with the same determination he had when he said _we’re going to the playoffs_ and _I’ll never get bored with you around_.

“Oh,” Taiga said. “Oh. I love you too.”

It was amazing what Daiki could say with a straight face, only for Taiga to be able to turn his ears bright red with a few words.

\--

“Does it bother you that I don’t have boobs?” Taiga asked, grinding his hips in a way that made Daiki’s teeth clench.

“How the fuck can you think of something so stupid while we’re doing something that feels so fucking good?” Daiki growled, hands clutching the sheets. He was lying down while Taiga rode him, which after a few different experiments, Taiga realized he really liked. There was a part of him that had always worried he wouldn’t be able to do this with his partner, considering what a big guy he was. Luckily, Daiki was just as huge.

“It’s just that I love you,” Taiga said, watching the blush spread over Daiki’s ears again as he leaned forward to kiss him. “And I want you to be happy. I’ve spent most of the time we knew each other thinking you were purely straight. So, I’m worried.”

It took a moment before they could bring themselves to stop kissing. “Look, boobs are great. Amazing. Perfect. But you cook for me--”

“A girl could do that.”

“Clean for me--”

“That too.”

“Have absolutely no gag reflex--”

Taiga blushed. “You could probably find a girl who doesn’t have one either.”

“And make me happy,” Daiki finished, breaking their rules a little bit to grab Taiga’s waist to stop him from moving. “Your underdeveloped basketball skills got me through a really horrible time in my life, and I thought it’d be fine after you moved away, but I didn’t know what to do with myself.”

Daiki pulled him in for more kisses, each one more loving than the last. “Every time we’ve been apart has sucked. Just calling you made me feel better. I would have spent the rest of my life coming up with increasingly ridiculous excuses to keep living with you, and it would have been enough.”

“I’m glad I asked to suck you off that day then,” Taiga said, unable to help the huge grin spreading across his face.

“Don’t fucking congratulate yourself for getting over your own stupidity,” Daiki growled, but it was followed by another gentle kiss.

He then moved his hands away, back to the sheets, letting Taiga take control again. Daiki thrust up as much as possible, but until Taiga gave him permission, he wasn’t allowed to help. Taiga liked that Daiki gave him this power, tried as hard as he could to resist just grabbing Taiga’s hips to pull him down onto his cock. Leaning down to press kisses to Daiki’s neck, he rode the man a little longer before whispering in his ear, “Okay, go ahead.”

Leaning back and bracing himself on his hands, Taiga just held on tight as Daiki took over fucking him. After being teased, Daiki had even less patience than normal, and Taiga knew he’d wake up from this with bruises on his hips and a very interesting walk. Luckily for him, the season was over, and while they did have to get into good condition, a few rest days wouldn’t hurt.

“Taiga,” Daiki said, pained from their distance, which was his cue to lean back forward, letting Daiki gather him in his arms. Taiga kissed him, letting Daiki swallow his moans to reaffirm that he was there. He had to break away to muffle his mouth in Daiki’s shoulder when he came--they’d learned eventually that even with how well insulated their apartment was, the neighbors could sometimes still hear them. “I can’t wait for us to move into our house, where you can scream as much as you want,” Daiki teased, tracing one of his fingers around where they were joined before withdrawing.

“Your priorities,” Taiga despaired, trying to ignore the way Daiki’s fingers had started thrusting into him. “Stop that! It’s fucking sensitive.”

“Okay, you can have a second,” Daiki generously allowed. “Then you can get your ass up here so I can eat my cum out of your ass.”

Taiga blushed. “No! We have an interview we have to get to!”

“In 4 hours!” Daiki objected.

“We still have to get cleaned up!”

“Fine, then get your ass up here now!”

They were on time for the interview, barely. “You gave some interesting responses,” Kuroko reviewed later. They were supposed to be finalizing the details of their trip home to Japan, but Kuroko had been watching the interview when they had called him. “You called Aomine-kun a bad anime villain, Kagami-kun.”

“I said he _was like_ a bad anime villain, in _high school!_ ” Taiga squawked. “You can’t say you don’t agree with that description.”

“I’m just surprised you were able to come up with such an apt comparison,” Kuroko replied. Taiga opened his mouth to object again when he felt a wet hand on the side of his head, followed by an almost equally wet kiss on his forehead.

“Dishes are done! Hey Tetsu,” Daiki said, flopping down to join Taiga on the floor.

“Neither of you said that your biggest accomplishment this year was winning the championship,” Kuroko pointed out. “Although I agree with Aomine-kun’s choice, clearly Kagami-kun’s biggest accomplishment has been getting his no good roommate to do chores.”

While Daiki tried to argue with Kuroko’s impassive observation, Taiga privately agreed. If he had known that his half-hearted grumbling about it being too difficult for him to take care of a house alone would result in Daiki actually learning to clean and do the laundry, he would have done it earlier. “Besides, we both said the same thing to that question.”

“Getting drafted,” Kuroko said. “I guess for you two, that would be the same as starting a relationship.”

They both blushed.

“Oh, and Kise is requesting ‘for the sake of all the single people’ that you turn down your ‘lovey-dovey’ actions when you visit. He said it was unbearable the last time he saw you two,” Kuroko said, and the quotation gestures he made with his flat expression only highlighted how ridiculous the statement was.

“We weren’t even together when he visited!” Taiga shouted. “Wait, was that what he meant?”

“Did he say something?” Daiki asked. “You didn’t tell me he said something.”

“Well, we’re about to go to Japan, so you can ask him yourself,” Taiga snapped, getting up to try and hide his blush. _Jealous_ , huh? “What are we going to tell them?” he asked when he came back, a bowl of popcorn providing cover for why he had abruptly gotten up.

“What do you mean?” Daiki asked, and even Kuroko looked confused.

“I mean… Are we going to tell them we didn’t actually start dating until the season was almost over? They all still think we’ve been together for a while now, right?”

Daiki gave him an unimpressed look. “If you want to explain to them how you thought I was just trying to compete with you in _gayness_ , then--”

“Point taken,” Taiga said, shoving a handful of popcorn in his mouth to end the conversation.

“Anyway, we need to go. Tetsu, I’m sure between you, Satsuki, and Akashi that all the details are handled,” Daiki said. Kuroko nodded. “All right, we’ll see you soon then.” He disconnected the call.

“Where do we need to go?” Taiga asked, reaching for another handful of popcorn. He shouted in distress when Daiki took it away.

“We need to go to my room,” Daiki said. Which basically meant _time for sex_.

“That’s not anything urgent,” Taiga growled. “We could have talked to Kuroko some more.”

“Taiga, remember back when I asked you what it was like to be on the receiving end of anal?” Daiki asked. The non sequitur almost made Taiga’s head spin.

“Um.”

“I realized that now, I can just find out for myself,” Daiki said, wearing that competitive smirk of his that had never failed to fire Taiga up. He watched as Daiki stood up from the floor, and now that he had been watching Daiki for a whole year--

“Oh shit,” Taiga said. “Are you--”

“It matches the one I got you,” Daiki confirmed.

“Okay, your bedroom.”


End file.
